Defiance: Badlands
by shenandoahok
Summary: Tommy fights against the cruelty of the badlands while serving on the City Council of Defiance. He uses his money from his robust wine sales to curve the spousal abuse in the community he loves.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

Wagoner Arkfall: 2040…

Debris flew across the night sky over Wagoner, Oklahoma. Nobody recognized the town since the dramatic terraforming took place nearly nine years earlier. The smell of burning rubber permeated the already toxic atmosphere. Rollers raced across the uneven terrain and the Tars had already hit the debris on the south hill. When Tommy-a fifteen-year-old kid-pulled the wiring out of the ark, a piece of sharp metal sliced another Arkhunter in half in front of his face. He couldn't believe such a strong and stout man met a bitter ending from flying debris, but razor rain was dangerous. He darted for his roller, slid underneath it, and let the razor rain pass. While he remained protected underneath the roller, he witnessed another buggy pull up to the ark. As soon as the razor rain past, another three buggies pulled up to the ark, and hunters descended on the goldmine of electronics. Tommy ran over to his pile of cabling and tossed it in the back of his roller. He hopped in his car, and right before he pulled out of the area, he witnessed the men in the first roller attack, kill, and steal the booty from the other hunters. It happened so fast that he didn't know what to do.

He met up with his father south of Wagoner in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and set up a camp in a park called Rotary Park. Most of the residents of the town fled during the original terraforming or left because of the high levels of radioactivity due to the war. Irocuz-Tommy's Irath father-prepared a meal of hell bug meat and rice, and when the food cooked on the open flame, a group of Arkhunters rolled up on the scene: Dagger, Percy, and Theodore Jones. Tommy and Irocuz knew the Jones boys well and assisted each other on hunts. The Jones boys brought some good bread for the meal, and they all shared in the good eats. Dagger was approximately six-foot-three and wore his hair in braids. He was a black man who carried a combat shotgun with him. He had a sidearm and a knife most of the time that he carried on his hip and boot, but he always had his combat shotgun. Quickly, Irocuz and Tommy raced across Muskogee to Braggs, Oklahoma because a major ark fall that happened near Gruber, Army Base. When Tommy and Irocuz invaded the ark, it had already been stripped of the wiring, and they quickly left back for the campsite, but two of the Jones' boys were dead, and Dagger had a wound to his left leg.

"What happened?" Irocuz asked. Tommy immediately began dressing the leg wound. It tore through his upper thigh, but away from the major artery. He did a fantastic job in dressing the wound.

"It was the Baker Boys," Dagger said as he cried over the deaths of his brothers. "They ambushed us, man."

Irocuz took the deaths of Dagger's brothers pretty hard, and it sent him into some kind of combative mode on the hunts. When they returned back to the farm with a wealth of wire, they trained daily on different counter attacks in case they ran into any rogue, out of control Arkhunters. There was so much training involved that he grew weary of it all. Tommy stood on a hill outside of the farmhouse with an old, wooden handled deadbolt sniper rifle. It fired a seven-point six-two round and had a maximum effective range of one thousand meters. Tommy placed a manikin approximately eight hundred meters out, and he filled it with holes. He had nearly two thousand rounds in a couple of ammo cans and practiced all day firing his rifle. Ireena, his little sister, brought him water every hour to make sure he stayed hydrated. It got to the point where she started practicing with her older brother. The deadbolt was the perfect practice weapon because it took work. The cycling of the weapon after each shot made it extremely tedious to operate for long periods of time, but Irocuz forced him to work with the weapon all day for months.

"It builds character, Tommy," Irocuz said as the young teenager complained the weapon took too much muscle to operate.

In addition, Irocuz built an ark markup that allowed them to practice entering an ark tactfully if the situation called for it. It was a room made out of wood but designed to look like an actual ark after it hit the ground. Two months later, Tommy and Irocuz raced back to Oklahoma when Irocuz anticipated an Arkfall would occur somewhere around Pryor, Oklahoma within three days. They set up a small camp on the outskirts of Pryor, Oklahoma, and played the waiting game for the Arkfall. When Dagger Jones entered the area, he stayed about fifteen yards from the Tars for safety purposes. Since the Baker Boys' attack on the Jones' boys, they had killed several other Ark Hunters since then.

Irocuz cooked a whole pow and had the immediate area smelling like barbeque meat. Tommy took out his charge blade, and cut off a piece of the meat, and took a bite. "It's really good."

"I knew it would be," Irocuz said, "We'll definitely be able to eat off that thing a few days."

Two hours later, a buggy pulled up on the scene, and Irocuz absconded into the woods. By watching the events take place while behind a large tree in the woods gave Irocuz the advantage. As soon as his son gave him the signal, he'd start killing the rogue Ark Hunters. Tommy continued to cut the meat off the cooking pow as if the strangers weren't a threat. He had a pistol strapped to his right ankle on the inside, and another pistol visible on his right hip. The life of an Ark Hunter had one major downfall: kill or be killed. In some ways, it caused good people to act like savages to protect their booty. It was the way of things, and if another Arkhunter invaded the space of another, it was a killable offense under the Ark Hunter code. Quickly, they exited the buggy, and Tommy took a defensive posture because the men had drawn their weapons. He stood in front of them with a piece of meat hanging out of his mouth. He knew he had to pull his pistol and take the guys out if he wanted to survive.

Tommy pulled out his pistol, and before he had a chance to fire one round, Dagger Jones gunned the men down with his combat shotgun he called Daisy. It caught Tommy off guard because he was trying to signal to Irocuz, but it was too late. Dagger was fast and accurate with his weapon. It was almost like he had an intimate connection with his gun, and he killed every last one of the men who posed an imminent threat. Irocuz walked out of the bush with his sniper rifle, and said, "These jokers are brave these days." He paused for a moment, and then said, "They brandished their guns knowing we're armed to the teeth. It doesn't make a lick of sense."

"I'm going to cut me off a chunk of this pow," Dagger said. "Most of these murderous Ark Hunters are mutants. They think like savages. I think of them as parasites on the backs of legitimate Ark Hunters. The radiation did something to their brains."

"Were those Baker Boys mutants?" Tommy asked. He sat on an old stump while he chewed on some pow meat.

"Yes they were," he said. "Those boys are from the Miami, Oklahoma area."

Dagger was one of the only other black men he talked to all the time on the ark hunts between Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Mister Shooty-not at all an Ark Hunter-was the only black man he knew in his youth, and he was very well educated. He thought the world of Mister Shooty, but Dagger Jones ran a close second because he was brave and generous-and appreciative. He had qualities that Tommy wanted to emulate. "I'd thought the radiation would have killed them."

"Somehow the terraforming kept them alive," he said, "To be honest, the terraform has changed us all on some level."

Thousands of humans who resided in radiated parts of Oklahoma like Miami, Oklahoma mutated nearly ten-years earlier because of heavy radiation due to terraforming and radioactive fallout from nuclear power plants. The government implored the residents around Miami to leave immediately when the terraforming caused a meltdown at the Miami Nuclear Plant, but a large swath of individuals refused to leave. Most of the northeastern Oklahomans didn't trust the government, and when the United States decided to build nuclear power plants to compete against Votanic energy sources, they contaminated the planet. But when it came to Miami, Oklahoma, the radiation spun out of control and radiated the entire area.

Tommy and Irocuz knew about the mutants but never ran into the ones with severe mental and physical deformities. But when it came to the Busy Baker Boys, it was obvious they suffered from radioactive poisoning. They were savages.

"Those Busy Baker Boys are dangerous," Dagger said, "I don't think I need to warn you guys about them. If you come across those mutants, don't hesitate to kill them."

"Oh! We won't," Irocuz said with a serious look on his face. "We're going to be on the lookout for that gang on every ark hunt."

It was around August fifth of forty-one, and Tommy was fifteen-years-old and Ireena was about nine. They spent most of their time studying Castithan, Irathient, Liberata, Volge, and Sensoth cultures. His Mama stayed on top of their studies. Iroza-his precious Mama-kept books upon books of information from mathematics to philosophy, and when Tommy wasn't on the road with his father, his face was in the books. Often, he drilled Ireena on different subject matters, and then she did the same to him. But when August the fifth of forty-one hit, Irocuz ran into the house, grabbed Tommy, and they headed for Hooker, Oklahoma. It was a Monday, and the sun beat the Badlands in the harshest manner. The dry heat fueled several wildfires in the tattered territory around Oklahoma City and the few people who resided in the area fled.

When they stopped in Selman, Oklahoma, they had to fuel up, and that was when the Busy Baker Boys stopped at the same gas station. Tommy fueled up his roller, and Irocuz went into the store for some sandwiches, chips, and soda pop. One of the Baker Boys said a slight towards Irocuz as they passed each other in the parking lot. "Fucking, dirty slags." Irocuz pretended like it didn't bother him, and from what Tommy could tell, it didn't. At the same time, they knew the Busy Baker Boys were on the scene, and that meant they had to be on point.

2047...

The aroma of the cinnamon rolls, baked pretzels, and bread reverberated throughout the city of Defiance, and the smell came from the Bazaar. Tommy, approximately twenty-one, slender, and black stood by the Irzu Lea, the people of Irzu, with an Irathient woman by the name of Rynn. Evil men imprinted her face with a scar at a very young age, and she wore it like a badge of honor. Her braided hair stretched past her shoulders, all the way down to her lower back, and it was apricot beautiful. Her calm visage and svelte frame gave her an appearance of royalty, and Tommy married her at the age of sixteen. It was a Saturday, the first Saturday of the month, and all the eateries baked pretzels for the Pretzel Bake-off, and the whole town participated in it.

Ireena walked by with her daughter Ivy, and then Irisa and Iroza followed behind them laughing. They sat down at a table in the middle of the food court, and Irisa sat on Tommy's left side while Rynn sat on his right side. Tommy called Irisia his paramour, and she was like his second wife, and she often spent her time on the farm when she wasn't working.

"You're a city councilman, but do you think it was a good idea to use your father's last name?" His Mama asked. "I see that Datak Tarr's shenanigans and people might confuse your last name with his." She gave him a snarl because of her hate for Datak and his ilk. She never liked him because of the way he treated his own people of lesser means.

"I ran on fidelity, Momma," He said softly. "Irocuz Tar is of no relation to Datak Tarr." He paused for a moment, and then said, "LaSalle is a beautiful name, but I think of myself as a Tar. Tommy Tar is now part of the city council of Defiance, and nothing will change that until the next election." He looked over at Rynn, and she kissed him on the forehead and gave the impression that she backed his decision.

"Some people do think you're in allegiance with Datak Tarr," Irisa said with a grimace. She took a drink of her beverage, and said, "Nolan's one of them. Just saying."

"You're kidding?" Rynn asked. "Surely you've corrected his mind from going down such a sordid path?"

"The liquor deal with Datak is valuable," he said, "But the big money is with Mister Shooty. We're talking nearly two million dollars in cheap, less than twelve scripts per bottle of wine." He looked over at Irisa, and said, "So, tell Nolan Mister Shooty is behind our fortune. Not Datak Tarr."

"And it's money that gets a city council seat," Ireena said.

Ivy said, "Yeah. Money!"

Everybody laughed, and then Rynn said, "She knows how politics work."

Tommy handed Ivy five scripts, and then they bumped fist. Ireena shook her head in disagreement with the money.

"So, how do you take Datak's disrespectful tone with you?" His mama asked seriously. "I don't like that one bit."

"He's only that way in Castithan," He said as a matter of factly.

"Doesn't he know you speak fluent Castithan?" She asked with a smirk on her face. He knew she was disappointed in him, but he had to be careful about how he approached members on the city council. "You studied night and day for a reason. Don't let that snow bunny disrespect you anymore."

"Yes, ma'am," He said. Rynn held his hand and placed it against her forehead.

She kissed him, and said, "I'm behind you, sweety."

"Oh! I'm behind my son also," his mama snapped, "But I want him to come correct to the citizens of Defiance."

The food district filled with tons of people. A sea of Castithans flocked into the food court, both masters and servants; it was a tad noisy. The masters wore the finest garbs while the peasants remained dingy and drab looking. The Castithans always drenched their bodies in sweet oils and some of the finest hair products. The masters sat at the table while the servants stood behind them. When one of the Castithan, upper-class citizens dropped her napkin on the ground, she looked back at her servant, and ordered her, "Pick it up." She said it cruelly and viciously. She said it in a way that belittled her servant, and Tommy hated that aspect of their culture.

Rynn called Rory, the Irathient waitress, and she had a look about her. Her left eye was blemished, and a cut in the middle of her forehead looked like a chronic case of abuse. He looked over at her for a moment and noticed all the bruises on her face, and that caused him to search her hands. She kept herself covered for the most part, but her hands had abrasions. Her lover was Irious Koba, a strong Irathient male, a warrior of the Garado Tribe. Tommy believed the Garado epitomized the idea of the feral Irathient, and they acted as such, all day every day.

"Pri pretzel for oadi shidda," Rynn said with a smile. "Big pretzel for my family." She rubbed the back of Tommy's neck, and then Rory darted off. "Inyee na frbrago." She stood up, and massaged his shoulders because he was pretty tense for some reason. "Soya, Ohgraway." That translated to, 'Okay, everybody."

"Miat?" Tommy asked. It was strange for Rynn to bring attention to herself. She normally stood quietly in the background. "Miat es nay iddie?" That translated to, "What? What's going on?" In fact, to see Rynn hop up, and make a speech out of the blue made him nervous.

"Soya, Tommy. Nia snogoa!" The English translation was, "Okay, Tommy. I'm pregnant."

He looked up at her for a moment, and then said, "Miat?" He felt nothing but joy rising inside of him. He wanted a baby so badly that it kept him up nights over it.

"Nia snogo," she said with a smile.

Tommy stood up and started jumping up and down. "Momma, wai na snogo," he said.

"Thank you, Irzu," Ireena said. She clapped loudly.

"Did you hear, Irisa?" Tommy asked. He hugged her quickly, and she kind of gave him a half pat on the back.

A couple of the Cathistans turned to Tommy from their table, and said, "Flazsto Tar, cazvalle grallo." In Castithan, that translated to, "Mister Tar. Happy pregnancy."

Tommy smiled, and said, "Voazku gragkaozu." That translated to, "Thank you."

"It's great," Irisa said, but it was less than enthusiastic. "I have to head to the jailhouse. I'll be back a little later." She began to cry and ran off across the way.

"Miat veeticka?" He asked. In English, it meant, "What happened?"

Rynn placed her hands on Tommy's cheeks, and said, "Nay vitai inyani illala." That translated into, "Go see your paramour."

Tommy ran across the way, over to the jailhouse, and heard her wailing on the other side of the building. She sat on the ground and looked out at the courthouse. "I don't know what's happening."

"You give her everything," she snapped. Tears rolled down her rosy cheeks, and he didn't know what to say. She cried loudly, and he wasn't used to her crying at all. "I'm left with what's left over."

"What do mean?" He asked. "I give both of you my everything."

"Not your semen!" She exclaimed. When she said that, it caught him completely off guard. Purposely, he wore a condom because he wanted to plan for kids. He didn't want any accidents. "You wear condoms when it comes to me. I quit taking the pill months ago in the hopes you'd slip up once. But no. You never love me in the heat of the moment without one. You're so precise."

"Have we not talked about this?" He asked softly. "Did you not say you weren't ready?" He walked over to her, and then said, "Rynn and I planned this. We're bringing a child into this world of our own volition. We're sagacious in our planning." He paused for a moment because she knew of their plans. He didn't see any reason to keep it a secret from her. She was part of his world, and she knew she was part of his world. As a man, he didn't even understand why they were engaged in such talk.

"And I'm not?" She asked.

"If you're ready, then let's plan it the right way," he said, "We bring our baby into a stable world, and we'll be strong, upright parents. But don't do this because you're jealous of Rynn. Do this out of what we want for the future."

"I'm not jealous of Rynn," she said softly. "I want a baby."

Later in the day…

Tommy drove his family back to the farm, but Irisa wanted some time to herself and stayed in Defiance. After the family went into the house, Tommy headed up the hill to Irocuz's grave to inform him that he'd be a grandfather soon. Even though his father was a hard Irathient male, he loved him in spite of all his flaws. Sometimes he spoke with a heavy hand and other times he spoke with a loving heart. He never knew which Irocuz he would get from day to day because the alcohol always made him unpredictable. He sat against his father's headstone, and said, "I wish you were here, old man. Soon you will have a grandchild. It's a wonderful time for the family, but it would be Antarctica if you were here."

Chapter One

I sat in the living room, and Rynn lay on the couch in her silky, very nice black gown. She was pregnant but managed to remain sexy in the way I liked. I loved her deeply, and I wanted her badly even though I knew she wasn't feeling well. She had complained to me several times that she wanted to throw up, but since she was sick for over a week with nausea, I was willing to risk it. In some ways, I felt like she was teasing me with her provocative clothing. She kept sliding her right leg up and down as if she couldn't relax, but to me, she was very sensual and sexual.

"I just don't feel well, honey," she said as she placed the back of her right hand over her forehead. I kind of gave her a look, and then our eyes met, and she said, "What? I'm sick, honey. Okay? Don't you have a paramour?" She asked with wide eyes and frustration.

"I haven't said anything to you," I said as I studied the notes from the Planning Committee. "I don't know why you're bringing all this drama."

I muddled through the notes from the Planning Committee, but every time I looked over at Rynn, she immediately looked at me as if to say, "No sex until I'm well." But at the same time, I didn't know why she had on such a provocative nightgown. Due to so many days without sex, I was thirsty for her, and that wasn't an exaggeration, but I had to suffer because she suffered. It was an unwritten rule of nature.

Datak wanted me to approve an add-on for the NeedWant, but I had some apprehensions about it. I had to double check anything Datak wanted, and put up a believable front, even if I believed in the project. I thought the addon could benefit Defiance. I truly did, but I also had to consider Nolan, Irisa, and the other law keepers. The project consisted of a simple, full dancehall, and he also said it could be a place for the arts. He put many ideas in my head over bringing dance to Defiance including Hip Hop, Irathient and Castithan ballet as well as human ballet. I looked over at Rynn's stomach as it peeked through her black gown, and thought dance would be fulfilling for our child.

Ireena walked into my study, placed a plate of French Fries on the table, and said, "Leave her alone, Tommy. You see she's sick."

"What? You better leave me alone, Ireena," I said. "I'm not bothering my wife."

Rynn laughed. "Oh. I know what you want, but I'm sick, Tommy. Seriously."

Ireena walked out of the room, and I grabbed some of the fries off the plate, dipped them in the ketchup, and ate them. "They're really hot, honey." She ate a fry from my fingers and chewed it slowly.

"They're really good," she said, "The right amount of salt and everything." I laughed a little bit. "What's funny, sweety?" Rynn asked. She looked over at me, and I must have sexualized the eating of the French Fry because I thought, _you're well enough to eat French Fries, but not sex_. I needed to get my mind out of the gutter before I angered her, and I decided to discuss the issues with the Needwant addon.

"Viti Datak," I said softly. "Shosho ragago es fi ahehi presanico." That translated to, "It's Datak. The dance hall is a good idea." I wanted to see her initial reaction. Rynn had a way of thinking through things, and coming back with a solid recommendation. I loved having such an astute wife by my side because all of her decisions came from a place of reason.

She looked over at me for a moment and squinted. She had her head on a soft pillow. "It draws a younger, more immature crowd on the weekends," she said, "Prone to violence."

"Nowdi zodica quona wodi Law-keepers," I said. That translated to, "That would tax our Law-keepers." Rynn shook her head in agreement.

"So, that's definitely a burden on the law, and it really affects us because Irisa and Nolan are dear to us. Well, Irisa is dear to us. I don't care too much for that Nolan."

"That's true," I said with a grimace. "That pushes me closer to a no vote. There's also a logistical problem if we pass measures that increase the population size of the area. I think at some point we're looking at some infrastructure fixes too."

"I think it's six toilets per one hundred," Rynn said, "That's important, especially with a large Irathient population because of the spread of rare and dangerous diseases."

"I've had tons of shots through the years," I said. "Iroza didn't play when it came to my vaccines. Immunizations are paramount."

"Rightly so," Rynn said, "My people brought diseases with us. Most don't bother us, but to other species, it's deadly." She looked directly at me, and said, " We should consult with the Votanis Collective for up to date safety protocols. We have to stay on top of this as the Irathient population grows."

"You're right about that," I said as I looked down at my notes. "I think we can avoid most outbreaks if we stay on the vaccinations."

I sat down my notes and looked at Rynn for a minute. Doc Yewll said Rynn was four months pregnant, with a boy, and he appeared to be healthy. The baby took a lot of her energy, and she hated sitting around not working. She was an invaluable resource in helping me think through tricky legislation while working on the city council. She was so calm with how she went about things, and always came back with a sagacious answer or a question that moved the thought process to the next level or answered the pertinent question. I walked over to her, massaged her feet, and tried to get her to relax, but she kept throwing up.

"Nia vogugae," She said, "Oh, Irzu." That translated to "I'm nauseated."

I gently undid the button on her gown, and exposed her breast.

"Nia ooduka, Tommy. Inyee na fi swa." That translated to, "I'm sick, Tommy. You're a dog." I kissed her neck and started barking like a dog. "Inyee na nay vo teetick." That translated to, "You're going to do this?"

"Thei," I said. "Na inyee soya?" That translated to, "Yes. Are you okay?"

"Me," she said. "Nia vogugae." That translated to, "No. I'm sick."

"Soya," I said. That translated to, "Okay."

"Miat?" She asked. That translated to, "What?" I immediately realized she wasn't in a playing mood. She was taking my playfulness seriously, and I needed to calm it down a bit.

"Me. Vitic soya," I said. That translated to, "No. It's okay." I was trying my best not to be demanding because the pregnancy had been playing with her hormones.

"Tommy, wa!" She exclaimed. That translated to, "Tommy, stop!" She felt like I was being passive aggressive when I said, "Soya," but I wasn't. I was trying my best to calm down the situation.

"Miat?" I asked. "Me. Nia oshea." I should have known better than to toy with her. I told her, "I'm sorry." She looked at me with her big yellow eyes and sighed.

"Sheishei Ni sho vava inyee weono nookie," she said, "Okay?" I looked at her as she lay on the couch, and smiled. She glowed beautifully. When translated into English, she said, "Later, I will give you some nookie." She meant later on in the week when she felt better, but she didn't mean later on in the evening. I didn't want to come off as a dog, but it had been a while. In fact, I didn't know her pregnancy would make her sick all the time, but at the same time, I wouldn't have changed it for anything.

I walked over to the window, looked out into the yard, and then I said, "I didn't mean to pressure you, Rynn." When I looked over at her, she wiped the tears from her eyes, and I felt bad about it. I had Irisa in Defiance, and sometimes I would run to her when Rynn wasn't feeling well. But sometimes I wanted Rynn and only Rynn, but I still felt I needed to apologize. "I was only kidding."

"It's not you," she said. She placed both of her hands on her face, and she was crying loudly. I felt bad, really bad, but her hormones messed with her emotions. "The pregnancy makes me crazy." She looked over at me, "I will be okay when we go down south for the celebration to honor Mister Shooty."

Ireena poked her head into the study, and pointed at me while squinting her eyes. "I told you to stop meddling," she said with a grimace on her face. She walked away, and I thought, _go away_.

"Irisa will take Friday and Monday off," I said with a smile. "I'm trying to get her to buy a new dress."

"Ireena, Ivy, and I are spending Sunday and Monday with Sukar, and that'll give you and Irisa plenty of time to work on that baby," she said. "Honestly, she's probably already pregnant. You guys try every time y'all meet up."

"It's probably just me, but Irisa has been distant towards me," I said in a concerning voice. I noticed for a while that she put up walls between us. Even though we engaged in sex, she sometimes acted like it was just sex, and that bothered me. "She's in her feelings. Since you announced you're pregnant, it hasn't been the same." I walked over to the coffee table, ate some fries off the plate, and then fed one to Rynn.

She chewed it slowly for a moment and thought about what I had said. "It shouldn't have changed anything," Rynn said as she threw her hands up in frustration. She looked over at me, and said, "We've opened our lives to her. She's welcomed here anytime." She laughed. "Surely, she knows her presence would free up some of my wifely duties." She laughed for a moment. "Not that I don't mind them. I'm just sick." It was true. I had never given a single hint to Irisa that she wasn't welcomed in my house. I considered her part of my family, and in Irathient culture, the paramour was of great importance in the family and tribe.

"That's what I don't understand," I said, "I hold nothing back from her. She shares in our lives. It's like she's preparing for a breakup."

"It's probably Nolan hounding her," she said with a grimace. "He's closed minded, honey." She looked over at me and then said, "I sound a tad obtrusive, but I know how he reacted to Irisa's decision to be your paramour. Come to think about it, she hasn't talked much to me." She sighed. "Now, I'm worried, Tommy.."

I walked over to Iroza's bookshelf, and it was a huge bookshelf, but not the only bookshelf in the house, and grabbed the large, Webster's Dictionary off the top shelf.

"What are you looking up?" Rynn asked. She knew I couldn't help myself when it came to finding the exact word. Since I had become a member of the City Council, I always wanted to use the best word for the situation.

"There's a word exactly for what I mean," I said softly.

She clicked her fingers rapidly and then slapped her left fist into the palm of her right hand. "Oh! Iroza gave me the word the other day during our reading lesson," she said. "Oh! Oh! Decathexis. Bam! It's the process of disinvestment of mental or emotional energy from a person. Right?"

"That's it. But I thought people did that when they anticipated some doom or mishap. For example, if a husband told his wife he had cancer, she might gradually remove all her feelings from him over time."

"It makes sense," she said. "But you're not dying."

"You don't think Nolan and Irisa are about to leave Defiance, do you?" I asked.

"They're very wayfaring and waywardly," she said. "So…"

"That's Nolan's past," I said. I don't know why I defended him. He would never defend me. "He's changed." I immediately thought _I should quit lying_. Nolan was an old man, and I knew he hadn't changed one iota. If the events in Defiance didn't go his way, he'd leave town immediately. That was his nature, and I knew it.

She laughed. "You don't believe that?" She placed her right hand over her lovely mouth as she laughed at what I said. There was no way I could keep up the charade on Nolan. I knew he hadn't changed and she knew he hadn't changed. The only person who thought he had changed was the Mayor.

"Of course not," I said, "It sounded right when I said it, but Nolan hasn't changed. I don't think he can change." I stopped and looked at my wife for a moment, and she looked sick. I kissed her on the lips, and said, " I'm going to Defiance. I need to make sure everything is okay."

"Take your detonator," She said. "It's getting crazy out there."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I stood in front of the Law-keeper's office, right outside the front door, and thought for a moment about what needed to be conveyed to Irisa. Despite the long discussion with Rynn and my own feelings, I didn't know exactly what to say to her. I knew she told me early on that they never stayed in one place a long time, but I thought she'd inform me if she planned on moving on to another town. It was about eleven in the morning-lunchtime-on October twelfth, twenty forty-eight. The Bazaar bustled with business, and the Castithans gathered throughout the street, dancing and singing to some of their ancient songs. The sun ducked its head behind the thick clouds, but it was warm, really warm, and the sweat poured off my head. The air conditioner sounded loud, and I could tell Nolan had it on high. The Castithan slave girls waved at me as I looked at them meandering down the street. Often, their slave masters abused them, but due to the fact they never complained, the law keepers couldn't do anything about it.

I walked into the office, into the cool air, and Nolan sat at his desk, legs on the table, chewing gum, and smacking loudly. It was cold in the office, much colder than it needed to be. Nolan had on his ugly, tattered leather jacket with the broken zipper. I looked around the room for a moment, but I didn't see my paramour. Nolan continued smacking on his gum, and it took me a moment to get my composure. Irisa wasn't at her desk and probably patrolled the Hollows since it was close to lunchtime. Her chair was pushed out from the desk, but that didn't mean anything. I don't recall her simply pushing her chair against the desk when I worked with her.

"Councilman Tar," Nolan said as he took his feet off the desk, and tried to act like he had some decorum. "I want you to know I'm a busy man. Some miscreants attacked some Iraths, and we got a missing family."

"Do you have any clues to their whereabouts?" I asked with a grimace. It wasn't the first case of some missing Votans, and it bothered me. I thought back to when some men from Apostasy kidnapped my sister and held her in captivity.

"We're checking on it right now. I have Ja Ri Vega working on the case," he said while he smacked on his gum.

I fitted their office with brand new furniture, but I knew Nolan didn't have the sensibility to protect it. I spent a lot of time convincing the other council members that the law keepers needed the best equipment, and it was obvious Nolan didn't care one iota about my work. I realized that almost immediately when he damaged one of the new rollers. I looked the other way, voted yes to fix it, and then went back to the farm. But if I was a hard man, as hard as I needed to be, I would have taken the damages to the new vehicle out of his paycheck.

"It's just us, Nolan," I said, "No need for all the formalities." I walked over to his desk and stood across from him. Dirt crumbs from his boots set on his desk where he had his feet. He looked up at me, smacked his gum, and I think he was being disrespectful on purpose.

"I'm on duty," he said. He grinned ominously at me, but it didn't bother me too much because I figured he'd act salty with me. I just knew he was going to act in a passive-aggressive manner or come at me with several unpleasantries.

"It's like that?" I asked with a grimace. I used just about every calming technique in my arsenal because of the way my former boss was acting. I only came into Defiance to be with my paramour, and I didn't need any extra drama.

"You damn right," he said, "You road into the councilman's seat on Datak's name, and immediately started dictating to me on how to run my shop." It was like he didn't think my father's name belonged to me, and I didn't quite understand the logic behind that. My father's last name was Tar, but Datak's last name was Tarr. It wasn't my fault that the names sounded the same, but they weren't the same.

"I was raised as the son of Irocuz Tar. He rejected me when I became a law keeper, but upon his death, he brought me back into the family. My name has nothing to do with Datak," I said. I felt adamant about that too. I didn't care to be associated with Datak on that level, but my father's name was dear to me. "I fitted your shop with what Defiance needed. It's really that simple, Nolan."

"You keep telling yourself that, boss," he said like he didn't trust me. I'm not going to lie, but he upset me with that remark. I didn't think Nolan would ever say such a thing to me or about me, and it did hurt. I gave him more than enough time to find a new deputy when I left the job. I put in my two weeks notice, and never regretted it one day, but as far as I could tell, Ja Ri Vega-a male Castithan-fitted the role perfectly.

"So we're down to name calling now?" I asked. "Am I not family?"

He smacked on his gum loudly, but didn't say anything at all. For the first time, I truly saw myself as being apart from him. I didn't expected that. Maybe Irisa had seen me as Datak's lackey too. I didn't know how she felt at all. I didn't know anything. "So, what do you want?" Nolan asked.

"It's just something has changed between Irisa and me," I said in a strong voice. I paced the floor for a moment and thought about what I said. The aroma from the food market seeped into the Law-keeper's office, and I realized I wanted something to eat. "I don't know what happened," I said.

"Maybe she finally sees you for the dog you are," he said, "Maybe she sees how you manipulated your way onto the city council. Maybe she sees how you crept into Defiance like some little-lost puppy and manipulated everybody."

"None of that is true," I said. When I drove into Defiance, I didn't think Nolan would ever unload on me like that. Due to the fact I considered him a close friend, it hurt my heart.

"You speak Castithan, Irathient, English, and probably a few other languages, but you used it to manipulate your way to steal a seat on the council."

"You had one roller. Now you have three," I said, "I did that for you. You had those old, Po-tech guns, and now you have the good stuff. I got you the armor and everything. If I haven't been a friend to the Law-keeper, then tell me who has? You need to rethink where your loyalties lie because I've always been on your side, Nolan. Maybe you could show me some fucking gratitude."

"Thank you, sir," he said with a scowl. He continued to smack on his gum, and then I left out of the Law-keeper's shack in a mood. I stomped down the stairs, out into the street, and headed over to the Bazaar. It was crazy. I hated that the people I cared about the most had the greatest power over me. It was the ones I loved who had a direct path to my heart. If I didn't care about Nolan and Irisa, I could have easily brushed off his words with ease, but from what I could tell, they pained me. I felt like he dragged me across a sheet of sandpaper, and left me bleeding on the other side.

Down the road, about half a block down, I saw Irisa standing in the middle of the street with her, holstered gun, beanie cap, glasses, and apricot hair. She glowed for some reason. It was a special kind of glow I saw in her, but it had to do with my overall feelings. It had been a while, some ten to fifteen days since she had her hair braided. I walked over to her, and she took off her shades for a moment, squinted, and then kissed me. For that one second, the way she looked at me, I knew she loved me. I saw the softness in her disposition, and I liked the way it made me feel.

"Tommy! I didn't know you were coming to Defiance," she said softly. Her grin went from ear to ear. When an Irathient woman smiled at a man, it meant something because they rarely smiled unless they cared for him. It was love, a deep-rooted love, and I felt it from her. I could have left after that, but now I wanted to stay. I knew what I needed to know about her.

"I just wanted to see you," I said with a smile. Gently, I touched her face with my right hand, and she rested her cheek on it. She was comfortable. "Do you want to grab some lunch?" I asked.

"Okay," she said. Holding me by the hand, I walked with her through the Bazaar, and her hand was soft to the touch. She smelled like sweet peaches.

I held her left hand as we walked over to the Bazaar. Rory-the Irathient girl-cleaned the tables, and she had a fresh, new set of wounds on her face, arms, and hands. The reason I took a liking to Rory was that Mister Shooty's oldest child was named Rory, and she was a wild human being about six years older than me. We grew up together back in Arkansas. Her bruised arms bothered me a lot, and her left eye looked partially healed, but the right eye was freshly bruised. I couldn't very well sit in her section, and not acknowledge the wounds all over her body.

"Rory, Na inyee soya?" I asked in a calm manner, but with an authoritative voice. I asked if she was okay. The only reason I felt compelled to ask her anything was because the bruises looked severe in some places. Irisa looked over at her, but then buried her face in her menu. Most Irathient women experienced some kind of abuse at the hands of Irathient males. Like any culture in the New World, a certain amount of male on female brutality happened. In fact, if I went to the Irathient community with my gripes, the women would be the first to tell me to stop meddling. It was the way of things in the New World. I didn't know how she could take it, but abuse happened a lot in Irathient tribes.

"Ni soya," she said softly. Even though she told me she was okay, I just didn't believe that. She had abrasions all over her body, and it was too much to bear. Unfortunately, I felt her agitation, and I let go of the subject, at least for now. I didn't want to dig too deeply into her life around other people, especially since I wasn't of her clan. Even when it came to Rynn, she didn't understand why I didn't smack her to the ground when she broke up with me a few years back. She expected me to manhandle her because she was my wife, but due to how Irosa raised me, I avoided spousal abuse at all cost. In addition, she never saw her father beat her Mama, but when it came to the Spirit Riders, they acted violently towards each other, and especially the females.

Irisa looked at the menu for a moment. She sucked her teeth as she went down the items on the menu, and I almost started laughing. She said, "Let me see. Just let me see for a minute. It all looks so good." I looked over at her, and she had the menu up to her face, and then she said, "I'm having the pow steak, mash potatoes, gravy, and corn."

"You get that every time," I said as I shook my head in disbelief." Irisa looked up at me, licked out her tongue, and then handed her menu to Rory. I looked over at our waitress, and said, "The same, please."

She laughed, and said, "You have that every time, Councilman."

It was true. Irisa and I loved the same foods. "Thank you, Rory." Irisa leaned back in her chair, somewhat away from my reach, and stretched. I could hear her back making a popping noise. When she scooted up to the table, I gently held her hand, and asked, "Why have you been so distant to me, Irisa?"

Her demeanor changed abruptly, and it was palpable. With her free hand, she took off her beanie, set it on her lap, and then said, "I'm frustrated, Tommy. I'm torn between Nolan and being with you on the farm."

At first, I set my head on the table because I couldn't believe she felt the way she did. I never once gave the impression that I would cut her off from Nolan like the farm was her imprisonment. The thought never crossed my mind. I scooted closer to her, and then said, "There hasn't been one ultimatum on my part, Irisa. I won't use threats in our relationship. Would I like you to live with us on the farm? Yes. Yes, I would like that very much. I would like to look into your eyes as you doze off to sleep at night, but you have your life here. I understand that."

She shook her head in disagreement, and then said, "I'm amazed how slick you are, Tommy Tar. You sound all so innocent, but for some reason, you failed to alleviate the tear in my heart over this issue. You're so deceptive with your words." She patted her chest as she said that, and I just listened for a moment.

I sighed and then said, "You're being silly about this. My motives aren't insidious, and you know it. I'm on the city council, so I have to travel to Defiance more and more now, but I stop by to see you, take you out, spend the night, and spend money on you every single time. It's just that simple."

"But why are you here today?" She asked.

"I'm here to see you," I said with a smile on my face. "Quit acting like you're not important to me." Rory set the plate of food down in front of me, and then set down Irisa's plate. She cut my pow steak into small squares because I liked it like that. I handed her sixty dollars worth of script, but the two meals only came to twenty scripts. Stuffing the forty dollars into her bra, she walked away and stood behind her booth. I took a toothpick from the holder, and stuck it into one of the cubes, dipped it in the sweet, whacky sauce, and ate the first bite. Irisa looked at me with an angry visage, and I sighed. "What's wrong?" I asked as I stuck a steak cube in my mouth.

"She cuts up your food now?" She asked as she sat across from me with her hands on the table. I looked at her as she complained about my meat cut up into blocks, but I didn't know why she had a problem with it.

"It's how I like it," I said. I penetrated another meaty cube with my toothpick, dipped it into the sweet, whacky sauce, and popped it into my mouth. The pow steaks were so tender that I could barely contain my pleasure with them.

"How much did you tip her?" Irisa asked.

"Forty scripts," I said. I didn't know why she cared because I always tipped Rory big.

"You just throw money away now," she said as she shook her head like I committed a grave sin. "Well. I'm behind on the rent for the apartment." I kind of looked at her with a befuddled visage for awhile because I didn't understand where she was going with that. I couldn't ascertain if she was trying to hurt me in some kind of way or just inform me that she was behind on the rent. I paid her housing dues because I couldn't trust her to pay them, but I knew that going into the relationship.

"Since when?" I asked as she cut up her steak. She sawed through the meat like it was tougher than it really was, and I just watched her as she wrestled with her food.

"Um. Since four or five months ago," she said. "Datak hasn't even complained."

I smirked. "I've paid three years rent on the apartment when he told me you missed a payment," I said. "I thought I told you that."

"I didn't ask you to do that, Tommy," she snapped. Her visage changed to one of anger, and I didn't understand the problem. She knew she wasn't going to keep up with the rent because I knew it. It was my responsibility to know the spending habits of my paramour, and I knew Irisa wasn't trustworthy in the money department with Nolan been her primary guide in life. "Why would you do that? Fuck, Tommy!"

"Calm down! You don't have to worry about rent, Irisa," I said. When Rynn and I made the decision on Irisa being my paramour, it meant that I took care of things like rent. It meant a lot of things. And when I brought her into my relationship, I knew her inability to keep up with the rent. "You're my paramour. What I give you is for you, and I have never held it over your head."

She looked down at the table for a moment, ate her food quietly, and sighed a few, uncomfortable times. I pretty much did the same because the entire conversation caught me off guard, but for some reason, she resented me for more than one thing. She begrudged me, but I didn't know why. "Lately, you've been spending so much time questioning my every move that I think you've forgotten the love somewhere along the way."

"I'm frustrated," she said with a grimace. "You know what I want, Tommy."

"Why do you think I'm here?" I asked.

Looking up from her food, Irisa smirked evilly. "What are we doing here then?"

Later in the afternoon…

Irisa walked out of the hovel while I stayed bare on the bed, and she had worked me over the way I liked. The sweet aroma of her perfume was on my skin. She went back to work, and I knew the sex would be quick, raw, and stress relieving. I thought it was cathartic. It was fast and dirty, and we expected it to be fast and dirty. At first, I thought our relationship hit a moribund state, but now I felt everything was okay. Honestly, I thought an arcadian lifestyle on the farm, and doing farm-like things on a daily basis would be more conducive to a pregnancy than the city life of Defiance. Eating Momma's cooking, the serenity of the moon on the tarn and the comfort of being around family created an environment propitious to creating a new life.

I walked over to the shower, grabbed the bar of soap, stood under the nozzle, and let the water sprinkle on my head. Most of my products set behind her feminine products, but I didn't mind. Once I dressed, I made myself a green tea. I only added a tad of sugar in my tea while I sat on the edge of the bed. I pulled a wad of script out of my left pocket, placed five hundred of it on the night table, and thought that would be plenty of money to buy the perfect dress for Mister Shooty's day. I then stood on the balcony and drank my tea quietly. My watch read two o'clock in the afternoon, and it must have been nearly one hundred degrees. It was crazy hot outside, and I wanted to stay in Irisa's hovel under the coolness of the air conditioner. The busy streets had all types of races roaming freely. I watched some Irathients walk by in their traditional garb, and when the Irathients came into Defiance from the Badlands, the residents treated them like they carried diseases. I looked down at a roller slowly cruising by on the main thoroughfare. The hood had an image of a horned devil on it. The exhaust pipes protruded out the back of the car, and when the driver pumped the gas, black smoke billowed out of the monstrous machine. I looked at it closely because of the humanoid skulls on the front of the vehicle, and it doused my mind with a flood of memories. I had seen something similar on the Hooker Arkfall that took place when I was about fifteen, and about a year before Rynn returned to my life. I slit a man's face with my charge blade, and Irocuz put two rounds in the man's brother's chest. It was a band of brothers called the Busy Baker Boys, and in those days, they were notorious for hijacking unsuspecting Ark Hunters for their booty.

It happened in a small town called Hooker, Oklahoma, a strange town, with a strange name, and all the strange people were infected by the Irathient plague that caused zombism. I remembered we rolled past a sign that read Texas county. I thought most of the people in the area had fled the region because of the deadly outbreak of the Irathient plague, but I was wrong. We knew the government of Oklahoma put out an edict to flee the area because of the outbreak, but the people ignored the order. It was twenty-forty-one, August Fifth, on a Monday. It was an exceptionally warm day, and Irocuz told me to stop with all the yakking with the other Ark Hunters. He made it known they were not my family and not my friends, and it got to the point where he told me not to talk until he gave me permission. Tensions were high between Irocuz and me because we were standing in front of the Busy Baker Boys, a dangerous family from Miami, Oklahoma. I'm not sure why I became loquacious during that time, but life frustrated me nonetheless. Irocuz chewed on his pow jerky, ate some chips, and drank some beer, but he was on the clock the entire time. I had overheard an Ark Hunter by the name of Billy De Baker, a tall pink skinned man say, "This bitch with the Spirit Riders stabbed me in the gut. I nearly died." We were in an Ark Hunter haven called Blessed Falls right outside of Hooker, Oklahoma. The area had a lot of Ark Hunters camped around it, and we were on the fringes of the area.

The Busy Baker Boys entered into the campsite from the rear end of the area, spotted Irocuz, and didn't travel deeper into the campgrounds. Earlier in the day, they had called Irocuz a dirty slag, so we were already on edge. It was only two of the brothers, and we expected the rest would show up later. Billy Dee Baker's forehead protruded outwardly, and he looked somewhat like Frankenstein. The radiation deformed him, and it was palpable. We knew they were in the area, but we didn't think they'd enter into our site. We didn't trust most hunters, but the Busy Baker Boys were mutants out of northeastern Oklahoma and notorious for attacking other Ark Hunter. About a month earlier, the brothers attacked and killed two of the three Jones' brothers, and pillaged the booty of other Ark Hunters over the last few months.

Another Ark Hunter named Aaron Baker stood beside his brother, but he wasn't near as tall. Billy stood approximately six-foot-two inches, but Aaron was only about five-foot-six inches. At the age of fifteen, I was only an inch taller than him. The smaller brother laughed about the girl stabbing his brother, and then he asked, "Was the bitch scarred?" He raked his right index finger over his left eye. When he mentioned the scar, it immediately piqued my interest.

"Yeah. Evil whore," Billy De Baker said. "The scar ran down and over her left eye. I praise the son-of-a-bitch that did that to her, but when I get the chance, I will beat her head in with a brick, and cut out her dirty slag womb."

"Did you fuck her?" I asked calmly and disgustingly. Immediately, I had an idea of who the girl was, but I wasn't sure. I stood up and looked over at their vehicle with the humanoid skulls on it. I assumed they were real so I became concerned about what kind of animals Irocuz and I faced.

He gave me a hostile stare and then said, "Mind your business, boy. Men are talking!" Aaron looked at me out the corner of his eyes, and it was disrespectful not to look an Ark Hunter directly in the eye.

"No disrespect, but you called her a whore. Did you rape her?" I asked.

"Fuck no," he said with a scowl on his face. "A dog wouldn't rape that feral Irathienth bitch." He laughed as if he said something clever, but it caused me anger because I thought it was Ynn, a girl I loved dearly from my childhood. In my early years, I called Rynn Ynn because I couldn't pronounce her name correctly. I just knew that I missed her deeply, and now that the two mutants threatened her life, I felt they jeopardized my chance of finding her.

"Perhaps you're the dog that would," I said with a scowl on my face. I was basically telling the man that he was the lowest form of human being, and when an Ark Hunter slighted another Ark Hunter, it meant something in the Badlands. Besides, the anger in my face telegraphed to the other two Ark Hunters that I meant to kill them. I wanted them to know they crossed a line with me.

Billy De Baker grabbed his Po-tech pistol, and Irocuz blew him away instantly with his sawed-off, double barrel shotgun. We weren't leaving the area without somebody dying, and it was something we knew without saying. The blast ripped through the man's upper torso, and I quickly pulled out my charge blade. I was at the ready when Aaron Baker tried to attack me, but he moved like molasses compared to me. I sidestepped his wild swing, and sliced off half his face; it slid on the ground in front of me, and it looked like melting butter. He didn't die, but he screamed and screamed and screamed, and it was so loud and forceful of a scream that Irocuz and I quickly absconded in our roller before his other brothers descended on the scene. As we drove down the street, he smacked me in the face a few times and said the following to me.

"Chinoc, Tommy. Inyee na chinoc," he screamed over and over again. That translated to, "Stupid, Tommy. You're stupid."

I didn't say anything at all. I knew I messed up, and I knew he wouldn't forget I messed up. "We weren't getting out of there without killing one of them," I said, "It was the Busy Baker Boys, Daddy. They stopped at our campsite for one reason. To kill us."

"Ni presana," he said, 'Ni presana." He agreed that he knew, but he still held anger for me, and I assumed it was the way I went about things. But when he said he wanted to bash the Irathient girls head in with a brick, I didn't see how he was going to leave the campsite alive. I would have shot him in the back if I needed to at that point.

We drove around the city of Hooker but didn't enter it until daylight. I ate a bit of my sandwich, and Irocuz fell asleep while we were parked on a hill. We didn't expect to see the Busy Baker Boys for a while because of what I did to Aaron's face. I deformed his face completely, and there wasn't any coming back from that.

The other Ark Hunters were nearby, and we knew the hunt would be brutal. We expected a cluster of arks to hit the small town, and the fortune would be monumental in size. A rumor reverberated throughout the Ark Hunter community that the Irathient plague had wreaked havoc on the citizens of Hooker, but we didn't know if that were true. Momma spent quite a bit of money having the Votans inoculate me, so I would be immune to the disease. As far as I knew, the scientists hadn't found a cure for the plague in humans, and if a human was infected, they would go on a murderous rampage. I didn't know one person who survived zombism once infected. That was the reason for the inoculations. In addition, I don't think one Irathient has ever been inflicted by the disease, but the humans and Castithans suffered from it in the multitudes, especially in enclaves of people who refused the inoculation.

Suddenly, four tattered ships tumbled erratically through the air, hit Hooker, Oklahoma, and sent out a shockwave throughout the immediate area. I felt the vibrations. After that, about a thousand tiny pieces of the metal hit against the earth, and Irocuz ordered me under the roller for safety. The metal pieces hit all over the place, and if they hit anybody in the head, it meant a quick death. Erocuz was in the front of the roller and I was in the rear of it. The debris rained down on us sparking little fires throughout the area. The electronics peppered Hooker for about two hours, and for a while, I thought it wouldn't ever stop. A swarm of deer raced by the vehicle in a mad attempt to escape the deadly shards of metal pouring out of the sky. Several of the beasts met a horrific death as the metal bits sliced them in half. Never in my life did I appreciate the sanctuary of the roller more than that day.

After the broken metal stopped its assault on the small town of Hooker, Oklahoma, I slid from under the roller, and we raced down to the first ark fall. It took us about twenty-two minutes to find it, and when we did, we immediately backed the vehicle up to the front of the ship and speared the door. An electrical pulse caused the door to open, and then the machine retracted the hook. Irocuz was the first one into the vessel, and then I ran inside.

I hated what I saw inside the alien ship: dead bodies, blood, and hopelessness. The dead Castithan children bothered me more than anything else. I didn't realize how much I truly cared for the children until I saw such a hopeless situation. I told myself I wouldn't cry, but I did cry. I cried for some kids I didn't know, but I empathize with their pain. My father ran directly for the wiring, and he removed it quickly, but the sight of the children gorgonized me. I couldn't remove it from my mind. Their emaciated faces saddened me, and it angered me that I couldn't do anything for them.

"Tommy! Miat na inyee yannai?" I looked at him with tears in my eyes, and he walked over to me, held me, and then he continued to collect the wires. He asked me in Irathient, "What are you fucking doing?" Throughout my childhood, I wanted my father to hug me like he did on that day, but it never happened. Rynn eventually told me years later that my father was the epitome of toxic male masculinity, but at that moment, he was a caring father and that was one of my best memories of him.

When I started taking the wiring out to the roller, I heard a scream in the distance. I looked left and then right, and then I saw a gaggle of horrid creatures racing towards the vessel. I could hear the cries of the walking dead, and regardless of my sadness for all the lost souls, I knew if we didn't leave the area immediately, we wouldn't survive the sickness. Their erratic movements frightened me. Their cries saddened me. The smoke from the small fire caused me to lose sight of the gaggle of monsters at times, and I knew I needed to alert Irocuz of the impending doom.

"Irocuz, wai hena nae," I screamed, "Irathient plague." In Irathient, I said, "Irocuz, we have to go."

He ran out the ship without the cabling, down the stairs, and to the roller. We left the wire behind, all of it, and took off in the vehicle. Racing across the Badlands of Oklahoma, the sea of sick almost seemed endless, and Irocuz repeatedly screamed, "Viti veeri."

I looked over at him for a moment, and said, "Veerae."

He looked at me in disbelief that I would waste time correcting him at a time of such a great loss, and said, "Veeri, veerae. Wai veerae fi quajo." He frowned for a moment and shook his head in disbelief. We drove out of town and then headed back home. It was going to be a long ride. He was upset with me because I said, "Veerae." That was the formal way of saying, "Loss." He said, "Veeri." When he said, "Veeri" in that manner, it meant, "Fucking loss." He basically said, "Fucking loss or loss." The transliteration was, "The fortune was a fucking loss." Unfortunately, it was a loss because we wasted tons of fuel, time, and money on the Hooker Arkfall, but returned with nothing. Irocuz killed a man and I deformed a man, and when looking back at those days, it was a sad time for the Tars.

So, I stood on the balcony, watched the roller with the skulls crawl down the Main street in Defiance, and I knew who owned that roller. I knew the vehicle, and I probably knew the occupants too. I was fifteen when I sliced Aaron Baker's face, but I'm sure he remembered me. I'd remember if somebody put a nick on my face, so I know he remembered me because I took off half his face with that charge blade. The Badlands bred brutality, and I was a child of it. If not for the love Iroza had for me, I'd be a stone cold killer if not dead. But when it came to the Busy Baker Boys, they never knew civility and was a notoriously, evil entity in the Badlands. I don't expect Aaron died from the wound Inflicted upon him, but I know he thinks about me. I took enough meat off his face that he probably thinks about me everytime he looks in the mirror.

I walked down the stairs of my old hovel on Main Street and drove my roller into the Hollows. The ordinary noises of the Hollows consisted of loud talking and screaming and somebody always playing loud, annoying music. Some of the Castithans, the Castithan lower classes, the indentured, Castithan servants walked along in their dowdy clothes, and minding their business, but impeding the slow-moving traffic nonetheless. The dismal souls stood directly in front of the Busy Baker Boys' roller, and I saw approximately four of them. They honked the horn of their roller, but the Castithans stayed the course, the pace, and continued their journey while impeding traffic.

Big Joe Baker exited the vehicle with a large stick. He sat on the driver's side of the roller with his thinly blond hair, thick eyebrows, and long, brown trench coat. His forehead stuck further out than what was considered normal. He had a limp about him because his right leg was noticeably shorter than the left and he always had thin hair. It was conducive to life around Miami, Oklahoma. I'm talking about deformities, small but noticeable deformities, but deformities nonetheless. The government told the humans to leave Miami, Oklahoma, but they refused. They kept refusing until it was too late, and a multitude of women gave birth to deformed babies. Due to the fact Irocuz and I came across them on several occasions, we knew about them. The Busy Baker Boys had their ways, and most of the time it ended badly for unsuspecting Ark Hunters.

When Irocuz shot Billy De Baker in the chest, he had already planned on shooting him. The Busy Baker Boys crept into an Ark Hunter's campsite, caught him off guard, killed him, and then ransacked all the dead Ark Hunter's possessions. The Busy Baker Boys' signature trademark was the skulls on their rollers, and when most Ark Hunters saw them coming, they left the area.

So, I range-walked down the street, across from the NeedWant, and to a good spot so I could keep my eyes on the roller's occupants and Joe's activities. I unholstered my Po-Tech pistol, and when Joe crept upon one of the young, indentured servants, he whacked her on the back with the stick. When she fell on the ground, I realized it was Tre La Tian, one of Datak's servants who accompanied his family during their baths. The thrust of the stick knocked her forward, and she dropped Datak's provisions on the ground. I became incensed when I saw what had happened because she was a friend to me. Immediately, she stood to her feet, she squatted, picked up the fruits and vegetables, and then Joe kicked her out of the way. It angered me so badly that I ran up to him, and struck him across the face with a right hook. He flew backward. When his brother, Aaron, exited the vehicle, I pointed my Po-Tech pistol at his deformed face.

I looked at Tre for a moment and checked her over as I pointed the gun at Aaron's face. She looked down at the ground sheepishly as I ensured she wasn't harmed. "Zwaysu, Tre," I said. I simply told her to leave in Castithan. I looked at Aaron. "Don't make me finish the job I started on your face," I said with a grimace. He stood in front of me wide-eyed as if he saw a ghost. Tre La Tian absconded down the street, and Aaron's eyes watered with anger.

"I hate you more than any human on the planet," he said calmly. "Your demon of a father killed my brother, and you ripped off my face with your alien tech. I will pay you back."

"I'm grown now, mutant," I said, "I'm my father's son, and Defiance isn't the town for you. Joe, leave the damn stick on the ground, and get out of my town."

"You best watch your back, Tommy Tar. You've wronged our family, and we're going to make you pay," Joe threatened. "You owe us for Billy's death and Aaron's face."

"You killed the Jones' brothers, and they were friends to the Tars," I said, "If you mess with my town, I will kill your unholy clan." I kept the gun trained on Aaron while Joe backed over to the roller. "You're parasites. You were planning on killing my father and me and loot our booty all those years ago. We killed Billy in self-defense."

Aaron laughed. He hopped back in his roller, and so did his brother. They turned around the vehicle and left out of Defiance.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Farm…

"Listen to him!" Rynn screamed. She had a scowl on her face that I hadn't seen in a long time, but we felt the situation warranted it. Ireena stood in the front yard trying to brush off what I told her and Rynn about the Busy Baker Boys, but Rynn knew the family of miscreants because she stabbed Billy in the gut back in twenty forty. We had already talked about that family of misfits when we were younger because they always lurked around the Oklahoma area attacking unsuspecting Ark Hunters. They did most of their tomfoolery in northern Oklahoma, but with some of the family situated around Defiance, we had to be careful. "It's serious, Ireena."

"Nobody travels alone," I said with a serious countenance. "I want everybody armed." I sat on the steps with my head between my legs because I was extremely upset with my sister. Ireena stood in front of me like she couldn't hear me correctly. I hated the fact that I let Aaron live when I was younger, but I didn't know any better. From what I could tell, the Busy Baker Boys probably resided in some old, dilapidated houses about thirty miles south of Defiance. A few years back a town popped up about thirty miles from Defiance, but they weren't established. I didn't even know the name of the town. Wayfarers often occupied the houses and dilapidated buildings and used drugs, engaged in wild sex, and often conducted a murder or two.

When it came to the statuses of the Baker Boys, I knew Billy was dead, but Aaron, Joe, Kevin, Nick, Riri, Travis, and Tater were all alive, all very nasty, and all on my radar. The only reason I knew about Riri was that she slashed Nathan Danner's throat in the Needwant when Clancy was the Law Keeper. She lured him outside of the Needwant, and he offered her twenty scripts for fellatio. She took his money, performed oral sex on him, and then when he climaxed, she repeatedly stabbed him in the gut. According to Doc Yewll, he didn't know what was happening to him until it was far too late.

I took Riri into the jailhouse, and she realized I was the guy who cut her brother's face and the son of the man who killed her brother, Billy. We gave her a quick trial, sent her to Las Vegas, but her brothers attacked the ground coach and killed the Liberata driver. I tried to tell Irocuz what happened, but he told me not to concern myself with the family business as long as I was a law keeper in Defiance. I hugged my Mama, and then headed back to Defiance, and pretended like my father and I never had the exchange of words over the Busy Baker Boys.

Rynn stood directly in front of me with lines of frustration on her face. I walked over to her, hugged her, and she hugged me back. "These Bakers are a nasty bunch," I said directly to Rynn. "If they look at you wrong, I'll kill them without a second thought."

"Sticking to protocols is our safest bet," she said, "We must keep a watchful eye on the property, but we must all be mindful." When she said "All" she looked directly at Ireena.

"I'm packing a Po-Tech pistol," she said as she raised her shirt, and displayed her gun. The stretch marks from her pregnancy were still visible. "If Tommy said pack, I pack. It's that simple."

I looked over at my sister, and said, "The day I found you dying in the woods I promised to protect you, Ireena. Just remember that."

"I know," she said, "You've always been my hero."

Rynn sat next to me, and Ireena ran into the house sobbing. I could tell Rynn was tired of dealing with her because she was acting like she couldn't carry a weapon like ten minutes before my wife snapped on her. She sat back against the screen door for a moment, slapped her hands on her knees, and then said, "Okay." She turned to me, and put on her sweet demeanor, and said, "I'm wearing Iroza's nicest dress to Mister Shooty's honoring on Saturday." She placed her head on my right shoulder, and then I held her gently for a moment. "It looks really nice on me too."

I smiled for a moment, and then said, "They all look nice on you." I paused for a moment, kissed her on the forehead, and then asked, "Which dress are you wearing?"

"The one with the truffles," she said. "You know the one I'm talking about?" She demonstrated how the truffles fit around her waist, so I could remember what it looked like. It's not that I actually forgot about the dress. I knew the dress well, but I realized immediately if she tried it on for me then I'd have the golden opportunity for sex.

"Let me see you in it?" I asked. I helped her to her feet, held her hands, and we went into Mama's room. Over the last year, I've noticed her hands had changed from rough and callous to soft and moist. She spent a lot of time dabbling in lotions, oils, and perfumes and put her Spirit Riding days behind her. I always thought it was crazy how she morphed into the role of the submissive wife when I actually accepted her with the tattered edges and explosive personality-and disobedient ways. When she returned to me all those years ago, she was wild and uncouth, but I still saw the little girl who left me in the middle of the Bazaar. Mama stood in the kitchen making dinner, and Ireena sat in the living room playing with Ivy. She stood in front of me in her gown. I lay back on the bed, watched her wiggle out of it, and let the silk dress fall to the ground and around her feet. She was almost completely nude if not for her panties. Her stomach bulged outwardly and I could see the baby kick every now and again. She was a beautiful picture of Irathient art. She slid into the white dress, and I zipped it up. It had the truffles and everything like she said. It fit her curvy body perfectly. She excited me.

"You look very nice," I said. "Beautiful." I looked her over for a moment, and truly enjoyed the way she looked. I desired to remove all Momma's dresses from her bed, and wrestle the dress off Rynn's body, and the idea played in my mind repeatedly. It wasn't going to happen that way because her mind and my mind were both on the dress; hers, the ambiance of the entire moment; me, removing the dress, and getting to the goods. She smirked for some reason.

"You don't know me as well as you think you do, Tommy," she said as she pointed at me with her right index finger.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It means I'm going to take off this dress, and do to you what you're thinking of doing to me right now," she said, "That's what's going to happen."

I laughed hard because I had been caught; it was like she was reading my dirty mind the entire time. I gently held her around the waist and kissed her sensually. I then said, "I tried my best to just enjoy you in the dress. It's true, but I'm thirsty for you, sexy."

By the tarn…

I sat on the bench overlooking the gentle tarn, and Rynn laid her beautiful head on my lap. We often enjoyed the evening breeze while the sun rested in the west. I massaged her scalp, and I could tell she enjoyed it. I loved the aroma of her hair. She used a nice, southern made peach shampoo on her hair that had a nice fragrance.

"I often wonder what would have happened if I never left Arkansas," she said calmly. "Would we have eventually grown apart?"

I laughed for a moment, and said, "I can't imagine being without you, Rynn. We married within months of reuniting. It's been six years later, and we're still strong."

"Our bond is strong," she said with a smile. "That's for sure. In fact, I don't know of one stronger."

I looked at the fish in the tarn leaping out of the water for bugs, and I continued massaging my wife's head. "I'm thinking about purchasing an assistant."

Immediately, Rynn raised up, and said, 'You mean a slave?"

"I'm not really thinking slave," I said.

"No. You mean slave," she said.

"A Castithan assistant would work well here," I said, "She'll be able to help you with the baby."

She sighed. "You just want a little, Castithan sex toy," she said. "You aren't fooling me."

"I knew you'd think that," I said.

"Do whatever," she said, "But you'll learn they're not without drama."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Later…

I often thought the crudeness of the world, and by crude, I specifically meant Nolan, corrupted Irisa's view of life. I used Nolan to represent all the things wrong with Irisa, because, in Irisa's eyes, Nolan was her example of a man. He was the man who saved her from the evils of the world, but the war, the trial, and the evils of the Badlands didn't prepare him to raise a girl into a woman and an Irathient girl into an Irathient warrior princess. We often talked about Nolan's behavior with women, and sometimes in detail. Due to my love for Rynn, I never made a bar tab in the Needwant, nor did I want to do that. Immediately, the Irathient women of the Needwant knew I was already married to Rynn the first time I stepped into the club. I was the black Irath, a ghostly hero who roamed the Badlands protecting Irathients from the evils of the world. It was a half-truth. Irocuz and I had several gun battles with evildoers through the years, and we saved an Irathient or two from bad men with guns. But I blame myself and Ireena for the black Irath moniker known throughout the Badlands. It was in twenty forty-one, a few months before I saved my lovely Rynn from being raped, I killed a bunch of humans trying to kill an Irathient family. When I attacked the men, I yelled out, "Blassi Veenager!" The couple had five Irathient kids in their family, and they said a black Irathient saved them, and his name was Blassi Veenager.

I'd like to think I had a modicum of goodness inside of me, but when Irisa found out I lied about my marriage to Rynn, my understanding of the Irathient language, and so on, she said, "You're no better than Nolan." That sent me down a dark path because I thought I was better than Nolan. I didn't sleep with random women. I didn't treat women badly or anything like that. I didn't run away when life was too much to handle. I was the kind of man to face my problems head-on.

According to Irisa, her father used women, and once he finished with some unsuspecting broad, he tossed her to the side. Irisa always thought she'd never let a man treat her that way. She'd prattle on how Nolan tossed fifty scripts on the table for some prostitute, and then leave like nothing ever happened. She hated the fact that he never had a meaningful relationship, and all the women in his life were no better than cannon fodder.

"If you throw money down on the table after you've fucked a woman, then she's a prostitute," Irisa told me several times. "I'm just saying. I don't play that." And I could tell it was one of her pet peeves because she couldn't hide the anger in her voice when she talked about leaving money on the table after sex. "I just can't imagine having sex, and then wake up to a few bucks for my services. Ugh!"

She never wanted to be that girl. I'd never allowed her to be that girl as long as she was my paramour. So, where am I going with this? I dropped five hundred scripts on her nightstand when I left her apartment on Monday, and it never registered in my mind that I was treating her like one of "Nolan's girls." I wanted her to buy herself a new dress for the event on the weekend because Mister Shooty was an old family friend and a very important man. I suspected she could find a fantastic dress for two hundred scripts, and the rest of the money could be used for whatever. Besides, five hundred scripts was a lot of money, especially when a prostitute was only about forty-five script at the most. She'd easily have three hundred scripts left over after buying the dress, and I thought the rest of the money could be used for food or something like that, but I gave the money to her and didn't think I should tell her how to spend it.

So, it was Wednesday. The morning air was nice, and I drove to Defiance with the windows opened and enjoyed the morning breeze. Mama asked me to pick up some nutmeg, bread, trash bags, and a few other items, and Rynn wanted some nice smelling shampoo and conditioner. I planned on buying Ireena a necklace and Ivy a teddy bear. For some reason, Ireena never wanted anything, and I found that bothersome. I thought I would buy Rynn a bracelet or a ring-or both that said from Tommy on them. Specifically, I came to Defiance for one reason: to drop off a load of semen in Irisa. I won't say it like that to her, but that was what I planned on doing. Now, once I gave her the five hundred scripts, I wasn't thinking about it. In fact, I almost forgot I gave it to her. With my liquor sales, I was bringing home a lot of money. I'm not going to miss five hundred scripts. When I meandered into her apartment, my penis was the kind of erect where I felt I could break bricks with it. But when I walked into her apartment, I mean she stood on the other side of the door with the wad of money in her right hand and screamed so loud that I put my hand on my pistol.

She said, "Hagisi! I'm not your damn prostitute!" It was so loud and bitter that I thought the entire town might have heard her. She threw the money at me, and it fell to the floor. I thought maybe the relationship was over because of the way she blew up at me. She scared me so badly that I had forgotten why I came by in the first place. I was completely feckless at that point, and sex was the furthest thing from my mind.

"What are you saying?" I asked. Her hair was wild, face red, and demeanor off-putting.

"You left money on the nightstand," she snapped. She poked me in the shoulder with her right index finger repeatedly. "I hate that, Tommy! You know I hate that! Why did you do it? What do you think of me?"

"So. It's to buy you a dress for Saturday," I said, "What's wrong with me giving you money?"

"Nolan sets money on the nightstand for his prostitutes," she screamed. "I'm not a prostitute, Tommy! I'm not! Okay?"

"Where can I put it then?" I asked. "Where can I put it so you don't feel bad?"

"You make me sick, Tommy," she said. "You can at least put a note with it, so I'll understand the gesture." She looked at me for a moment looking for something in my eyes. It's like a calmness swept over her body, and then she said, "Anyway, there's a pow bacon sandwich on the stove if you're hungry."

I watched her walk down the steps, and I didn't know what to make of her madness because she's nothing like all the Irathient people I know. She's not traditional at all, but I knew that from the beginning. It wasn't like she caught me off guard with her little tiff, but she did. I mean I knew she had some fire in her blood, and I even thought she picked up on my mannerisms when we first met. I'm better now at turning off my gaucherie behavior today than a few years ago, but I bit my tongue still. I'm a city councilman, and I can't make a spectacle of myself. I can't be all crass and lambaste my paramour in the middle of the town square. I wouldn't do that in the first place. But I grew up with an irascible Irathient male. I called him my father, and sometimes his hands were heavy, and sometimes I felt those heavy hands trying to keep them off my Momma. It was the way of things, and I hated it.

After I picked the money off the floor, I set it on the bed in a stack. I grabbed the bacon sandwich off the stove, sat on the edge of the bed, and ate it. She had a painting on the far wall that looked like little curlicues, and then another one of some African art. Overall, she kept her hovel free of clutter, but she loved her artsy things. I turned on her radio and listened to Alex play some Old World music, and it sounded pretty good. When I was a deputy law keeper, I often sat back in the corner, and listened to the sounds, wishing for Rynn to come to her senses, and my father to treat me like his son.

Suddenly, I heard some soft footsteps rumbling their way up the steps, and Irisa opened the apartment's door. I thought she was going to scream at me some more, but that wasn't the case. She raced over to me, kissed me, and then apologized for the way she acted.

"I was being silly earlier," she said softly. "I walked around the Bazaar, realized how foolish I had been, and raced back over here."

"I'm not upset," I said with a smile. "Why don't you come to the farm this evening, and break bread with the family?'

"Okay," she said with a smile.

Later…

I bought Ivy a teddy bear, one of those teddy bears that little kids always love. After I purchased her the teddy, I ended up buying her little books and everything to start with her lesson plans. I purchased Rynn a bracelet from the Castithan jewelry salesman, and then I got her an expensive diamond ring. I placed the diamond up to my mouth, blew on it, and it unfogged instantly. The ring cost nearly five thousand scripts. In addition, I purchased a paramour ring for three thousand, and I placed them deep in my left pocket. I gave the jeweler a small note for the inscription on the backside of the bracelet. I thought about buying Ivy a bed, but I didn't have a way of getting everything back to the farm. I probably could have gotten some help from Datak, but I decided to stay away from him until people calmed down a bit, and stopped accusing me of being his lackey. By the time I finished with all my shopping, I had purchased Mama two things of nutmeg.

Back at the farm…

I'm not sure why Irisa dressed in her brown, rustic clothing, but she made it look good. She let me braid her hair, and it was in a nice ponytail with one braid hanging loose on the left side of her head. She had on some tight, leather looking brown pants that fit her bottom perfectly, and I let her walk in front of me to the roller, so I could appreciate her. The trip wasn't long. I walked into the house with the sack of gifts, and Ivy went crazy because she knew I thought about her. She ran into the living room with her apricot hair all over her head, grabbed the Teddy bear, and screamed, "Ni oragra inyee, Croyo Tommy." That translated to, "I love you, Uncle Tommy." I placed all the books on the couch, so she could take them to her room. There was no way she could carry all the gifts at one time.

"Inyee na brachi apia," Ireena said with a smile. That translated to, "You're spoiling her." She hugged Irisa.

"Ni presana," I said. That translated to, "I know." We walked into the living room, and Rynn and Momma set the table. I walked back into the living room, grabbed the sacks, and brought them into the living room. I still had the rings in my pocket. When we sat down, Rynn was on my right and Irisa on my left. Momma led us in prayer to Irzu, and then I grabbed her necklace out of the sack, and said, "Eerah, Momma." I handed her the case, and when she opened the diamond encrusted heart necklace, she fell in love with it. Ireena placed it around Momma's neck, and it looked regal to me.

"Viti prapai," Rynn said with a smile. That translated to, "It's beautiful."

"Ireena, eerah inyee na," I said as I handed her a case. That translated to, "Ireena, here you are."

"Oh, Tommy," she said, "I'm not worthy."

"Of course you are," I said with a smile. I stood up and walked in front of Irisa, and she shook her head in disbelief.

"What did you do, Tommy?" She asked softly.

I stood up in front of Irisa and knelt. "Thank you for being my paramour. You've always been special to me." I pulled out the ring specifically for her and placed it on her finger.

"Oh my gawd," she said, "This isn't cheap." I kissed her hand, and she began to sob.

"Okay, Rynn," I said.

"Tommy," she said with a grimace. "You shouldn't spoil us like this." When I pulled out the ring, she nearly passed out on the floor, and Irisa helped her stay up in the chair. "That's an expensive ring. You could have given me a cracker jack ring, and I would have thought the world of you." She cried. "Nobody is worth all this."

"If I had the money, I would buy you the world, Rynn," I said. I placed the ring on her finger, and then said, "That's the ring I wanted to give you five years ago."

"Ahiha, Tommy," she said with tears in her eyes. "I love you so much."

We sat around the table about to break bread, and Rynn and Irisa continued to admire their new rings. I had Rynn's bracelet at the store, and I wanted to give it to her when she returned from Sukar's house on Tuesday. I had already anticipated that we'd spend time under the night sky, and just enjoy each other's company. It had been awhile since we'd entertained each other uninterrupted, and that was important to me.

When we began to eat, I noticed the shredded pow meat in a deep, dark red barbecue sauce broke apart so easily and tasted so good that I could barely contain myself. Ireena baked some light, flour bread rolls that were so moist that I could barely contain my pleasure with it. I placed a bit of homemade, churned butter on it, and when I bit into it, I wanted to scream because it tasted so good. Irisa made several sounds of joy while I tried my best to contain myself. Rynn quickly darted to the kitchen and came back with a tray of homemade, chocolate truffles, a candy that she made from one of Mama's old recipes. Now, I think I need to explain this in full because Rynn's crazy wasn't as loud as Irisa's crazy, but it was crazy nonetheless.

I bit into one of the chocolate truffles, and I'm not sure how to explain how it pleasured me. It had a smooth, creamy chocolate taste that almost transported me to Antarctica, the closest understanding of Heaven I had in my mind. When I bit into it, a sudden crunch of an almond caught me off guard, but it only enriched the flavor. If I had died at that moment, I think I would have been okay with it. All the women in my life were at the table with me, and all I felt was bliss. I didn't really think life could be any better than it was at that very moment. Now, what made this situation crazy? Well, that was pretty simple. Rynn had to ask what women always ask, but she had to ask it in such a way that demanded a reply.

"How does it taste?" She asked. That didn't seem too bad, but Rynn asked it in the calmest way possible. She then asked, "It tasted okay, right? It isn't too creamy is it?" I'm not sure what she wanted me to say. I wasn't up to answering that many questions, and to be honest, I wanted her to leave me alone about the candy. She was looking right at me and wanted me to say something. I turned to her, and I was actually nervous.

"It tasted pretty good," I said softly. "It's got a crunch that I didn't expect, but other than that, it's the best chocolate I've ever eaten. I'm in Heaven over here." Now, I thought I said, "It was perfect." She looked over at me, and smiled for a moment, turned back to her plate, and continued to eat. So, I felt that everything was okay. Some questions were asked, and I answered them in a manly way.

"Okay," she said as she stuck her fork into the pow meat. Everybody around the table agreed the truffles tasted incredible, including me, but at the same time, she wasn't trying to impress the other people around the table. She wanted to sway me. And I have to be honest, I was incredibly impressed by the candy. When I took Irisa home, she grabbed four pieces, and most of the time she'd share with me, but not those truffles. I was thinking _I had the whole tray to myself when I return home_ , so I wasn't worried about Irisa being stingy.

When I took her home, she said, "You know I love you, right?"

"Of course," I said.

"You touch one of my truffles, and I'll break your hand," she said. She wasn't smiling, and she was about an inch from my face when she said it. I spent the night with her, and we made love several times, and then she said, "I have to get up in the morning for work. Sleep time."

"Okay, baby," I said with a smile. "Have you had a doctor's appointment? You might already be pregnant."

"I'll make one for Monday," she said.

The morning…

I'm laying in bed asleep when I felt Irisa's lips pressed against mine, and when I opened my eyes, she was already dressed in her uniform, and on her way out the door. "Buy that dress for the weekend," I said with a grimace. "I'll be by around six or seven in the evening tomorrow to pick you up."

"Okay," she said, "I'm working until two today, and then I will come home for some sleep, and go back in at nine in the evening."

"Until what time?" I asked.

"Two," she said, "Then I'll come back in at nine in the morning." She looked back at me, and said, "Don't fuck with my truffles."

"Fine," I said.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

I raced back to the farm after Irisa went to work. The morning sun had a sting to it, and the forenoon atmosphere had a pinkish tint to it. Some of the areas around Defiance had higher levels of radioactive material and mitigating it was a major agenda item for the city council. Nolan stood outside of the jailhouse chewing on his tobacco. He spat on the ground right in front of the steps leading up to the jailhouse. I looked over at him right before I hopped in my roller, and he kind of looked my way, but that was about it. I nodded at him, but he gave me a side eye and then walked into the jailhouse. It was one of those situations where I felt less like a man because I wasted a good head nod, and Nolan didn't reciprocate it at all. That was rude of him, but that was okay. I'm a city official, a politician, and building a bridge with Nolan wasn't of the utmost importance. But Crawley, on the other hand, was a man of means and had the equipment to clean up the radioactive material. In addition, he was a founder of defiance, and since he pretty much owned the town, it was in his best interest to keep it clean.

I walked down the street for a moment, and Rory set up her area. It was around eight o'clock in the morning, and the smell of pow bacon, eggs, and buttermilk biscuits permeated through the area. It bounced off every building. I was taking some time out of my schedule to walk around the Bazaar, check out my city, and make sure everything was in accordance with the city ordinance. Since Rory's business set in the front of the Bazaar, I noticed her before all the other booths. She walked around dragging her left leg like it was hurting her. She had a scarf on her head, a white, buttoned up shirt, and beige shorts. She was only about five-foot-four, slender with a curvaceous bottom. She was a pretty Irathient woman, but the abuse changed her over time. I had every intention of asking her about her damaged leg at some point in time. In fact, I was thinking about setting her up in an apartment in the same building where Irisa lived, but Rynn warned me about dictating to other tribes.

The Needwant crew crowded into Rory's section, and some of the girls talked to her, pointed to her wounds, and I was happy to see that. When it came to the mistresses of the Needwant, they were their own tribe. Most of the Irathient girls in the Needwant came from abused homes, and they had a little network where each girl checked on her sister. It was a fantastic philosophy that I wanted to be taught in the primary and secondary education system. I don't know why I worried so much about the other women of Defiance, but the women in my life were strong, clean, healthy, and wholesome. Rynn was like Mama: strong, resourceful, and caring. She was like a chest full of gold, diamonds, and pirate's booty. I thought the world of her.

Kenya Rosewater-the woman who ran the Needwant-ran up to me out of nowhere, and she was upset. She had the stench of gulinite workers on her, and I just assumed she did a lot of horizontal work overnight. She had her hands on her hips and complained about an ordinance that I presented to the city council that required Doc Yewll to inspect each sex worker once a week to prevent the spread of venereal diseases.

"Tommy, you're ruining my business," she snapped, "By forcing me to pay for medical exams my girls don't need."

I looked her directly in the face and scowled. She upset me because I was a private man, and she was making a scene in the middle of the Bazaar. "The safety of the sex workers and the townspeople are of the utmost importance to me. I can't afford a syphilis outbreak, Kenya. Defiance can't afford a syphilis outbreak."

"First, you'll come at me with mandatory medical exams for my girls, then what's next?" She asked. "I'm just a small business."

"Just an extra five scripts per job will do it," I said.

"You're saying charge sixty dollars per session instead of fifty-five?" She asked. "In what world would a man pay an extra five scripts, Tommy?" She asked. "You sit behind your fancy desk, come up with all your crazy ideas, and never think about the little man."

I walked past her, and then turned around, and said, "It's about safety, Kenya. Give it some thought."

She scoffed at me and then walked over to Rory's booth.

"Kenya?" I screamed.

She turned around, gave me the middle finger, and kept walking. I knew exactly why she was upset, but I gave a lot of thought to the proposal. Ireena gave me the idea of medical checkups after John Staples caught a deadly form of Chlamydia two months ago, and died a horrible death. The waywardly, seventeen-year-old Irathient girl who infected him was simply passing through Defiance from Apostasy. She didn't know she was a carrier of the disease until Doc Yewll checked her out in the clinic. She had gone into the doctor's office running an extremely high fever, and during the examination, Yewll discovered the girl had a deadly form of Chlamydia. Even though she cured the young woman of the disease, John Staples didn't stand a chance because the affliction damaged his organs within a day or two of the infection. By the third day, he was dead. She brought news about the deadly strain of the virus to a City Council Meeting, and when I went home that evening, Ireena gave me the idea of weekly checkups.

When Datak complained to me about the extra expense, I said, "A healthy Defiance is a horny Defiance." He gave me one of his side looks, and agreed to the new ordinance.

I walked past Dazizu Taeza's booth, and she sold Castithan pastries of all types, and the children crowded her booth for the tasty treats. She always had a healthy customer base, but I hadn't eaten there in some time. It's not that I was watching my waistline, but after living in Defiance for a number of years, I knew I couldn't eat too many of those delicious confections.

"Mister Tar, religwo," Dazizu said with a nice smile. She looked like an ethereal being who fell from the heavens. Her long, white hair fell past her shoulders, and she had a nice smile.

I waved at her, and said, "Religwo." We exchanged simple pleasantries, but when it came to the word _religwo_ , it also meant goodbye. I'm not going to lie, but as a child, I struggled with the Castithan language all the time. But I stayed up long nights to master it under the watchful eye of my Mama.

Suddenly, I felt a swat on the butt, and when I turned around, it was Irisa smiling big. "Ouch!"

"Big baby, it didn't hurt," she said smiling. "What are you still doing here?"

"Just getting a feel for the old city," I said with a smile. "You know what I mean, right?"

"Of course," she said. "But I just talked to Kenya, and she wants to slice your balls off."

"I know," I said, "But I proposed the medical checks for the safety of her girls and the people of Defiance. The same men who frequent her bar are the same men who have wives and husbands."

"I know," she said, "It's a wise idea."

Later...

I quickly left for the farm and didn't think much about Kenya Rosewater's objection because I believed in time she would understand the need for the medical examinations. When I drove up to the farm, Rynn sat on the bench near the tarn and appeared to enjoy the nice morning. I walked up to her, kissed her on the neck, and then she held my hand.

"Can we talk?" She asked softly. The morning sun bounced off her face, and she almost looked like an angel. She sat in front of me with a quiet beauty.

"I'm always opened to talk," I said. "About what?"

"The baby's name," she said with a calm demeanor. As soon as she said that, I knew she probably spent a lot of time thinking about a good, baby name.

I looked down at the ground for a moment, and this was a touchy subject for us, but I had already relented on this. I remembered her father, and I believed him to be a good man. I placed my left hand on her right knee, and said, "I-Ron will be his name."

"You don't have a problem with this?" She asked.

"It's a good name, Rynn," I said with a smile. "When my paramour and I have a child, we'll name the first boy, Irocuz. I'm completely happy with this arrangement. We'll raise strong children. They'll be great warriors and leaders."

"You have made me proud," she said with a smile. Looking down at her ring, she said, "We've built so much in such a short time. We have workers. We're buying grapes from the tribes. We're making huge profits. It's as if Irzu blesses us daily."

I smiled, held her close, and gently felt her stomach. When I slid my right hand across her belly, the baby kicked me. "This child will be beautiful."

"And strong," she said. "Very strong."

I gently kissed her on the lips, and said, "Are you coming in?"

"In a moment, darling," she said smilingly.

Quickly, I walked into the house, over to the refrigerator, and reached for the chocolate truffles, but I didn't see them at all. I felt bad because when I hugged Rynn I was actually thinking about the sweet confections, and that wasn't right. I pushed some hellbug soup to the side, took some things out of the refrigerator, but I didn't see any truffles. Ireena walked through the house with Ivy, and she wasn't really paying me any attention. I looked at her for a second, and I believed she knew I was looking for the truffles, but she had a befuddled look on her face.

"What?" She asked.

"Yannae inyee mieta tro truffles?" I asked in a snippy manner. That translated to, "Did you eat the truffles?"

"Miat?" She asked. That translated to, "What?" She walked over to the refrigerator, and looked through it for a moment, and then looked back at me. "Ni ubia mita tro truffles," she said. That translated to, "I didn't eat the truffles."

"Seweibe mietae tro truffles," I said as I grabbed her around the waist, and moved her out of my way. That translated to, "Somebody ate the truffles."

"Inyee mietae tro truffles," she said as she poked me in back of the head with her right index finger. That translated to, "You ate the truffles."

"Ni nae nayno eerah mieta truffles," I said, "Inyee na chinoc." That translated to, "I wasn't here to eat truffles. You're stupid."

"Haddia viti bodi," she snapped. I knew I angered her. That translated to, "Take it back."

"Soya," I said. I walked out to the back door, and Rynn sat on the bench looking out over the tarn. She seemed so peaceful as she sat with her hands in her lap. "Udiay na tro truffles?" That translated to, "Where are the truffles?"

"Kublonk," she said. "Ya kublonk." That translated to, "Trash. All trashed." I nearly passed out in the threshold of the door because I couldn't believe she tossed them.

"Miat? Comick?" I asked. That translated to, "What? Why?"

"Inyee naee dinai trilled ti truffles," she said screaming. That translated to, "You were making fun of the truffles." She then said, "Truffles forya Antarctica. Truffles forya Heaven. Ni nae forya truffles nay tro kublonk." That translated to, "Truffles like Antarctica. Truffles like Heaven. I was like truffles going in the trash." She paused for a moment. "You're very condescending, Tommy."

I walked into the living room, sat down in Irocuz's favorite chair, and tried to relax. I actually wanted to cry because we had been together for six years, and I always said her food tasted like Heaven. But at the same time, she told me the pregnancy made her more sensitive. I had to believe that was the case. She walked into the dining room, sat at the table, and began reading one of her books. She looked over at me for a moment.

"Oshea, Tommy," she said, "Soya?" That translated to, "Sorry, Tommy. Okay?"

"Viti soya," I said softly. That translated to, "It's okay."

I leaned back in Irocuz's Lazy Boy and watched Rynn closely. The way my anger abated at her mere sight amazed me. Her presence calmed me. She read her book, and I read her. Ireena walked into the living room, sat on the couch, and then Ivy walked up from her play area.

She said to Rynn, 'Mema, Mema, Teddy Bear."

Rynn smiled, and said, "I'm Rynn."

"Inyee presana nowdi es Rynn," I said laughingly. That translated to, "You know that's Rynn."

"She's just a child, Tommy," Ireena said.

I looked over at Rynn, and I had an epiphany. I don't know exactly how the mind worked, but something clicked in my head. Rynn moved about with patience and regal like, and so did Mama. I said way back when that Rynn resembled Mama, and I always thought that. When I thought back to when Irocuz shot Billy De Baker in the chest, he referenced Rynn. I became angry because I remember when her wound was fresh, but Irocuz shot the guy because he referenced his daughter. I paused for a moment. Immediately, I hopped up from the couch.

"Where are you going?" Ireena asked.

"Crazy," I said. "I need to talk to Mama."

I raced through the house, and Mama sat on her bed reading. I didn't even knock on the door and barged into her room, and she kind of panicked for a second. "What's wrong with you, boy?" She asked.

I looked at her for a moment, and then whispered, "You've been lying, Mama."

"Tommy," she said softly, "What are you talking about?"

"Momma, Rynn es inyani ugee," I said, "Vordi eocka." That translated to, "Momma, Rynn is your daughter. Don't lie."

She placed her book on the bed, and then said, "Go to the pond. I'll be out there in a moment."

By the tarn…

Momma and I sat on the bench, and she started crying. She looked over at me, "I was young. Times were hard, and the humans treated us so badly. I had a sweet baby girl that I named Rynn, but we didn't have the means to take care of her." She paused for a moment. "I gave her to the Votanis Collective, and they placed her in a home. I didn't know where she was placed."

"But when you saw her at the Bazaar, did you know?" I asked.

She smiled. "I suspected, but when she read the poem, 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' by Robert Frost, I knew. " Pulling out a piece of paper, she handed it to me. "She's my child."

"Did Irocuz know?" I asked.

"Of course," she said, "Remember when you saved her?"

"Yes," I said.

"She stayed with us a whole month, and nobody came for her," she said, "We told her tribe we had her, and that we were her biological family."

"Couldn't you have told me?" I asked.

"What difference would it have made?" She asked. "You were going to marry Rynn regardless. Once you met her we knew."

"But Irocuz said bad things about her," I said.

She smirked. "He wanted to see if you'd man up, and take up for his child," she said, "Irocuz said he wanted all his children home, and you did it."

"I have to tell Rynn," I said.

"You better be careful with that. She might not take it well."

"I won't keep things from her. I never have and I never will," I said.

Momma stood up, looked back at me, and then sighed. "You're now the man of the house, and I trust your judgement."

I sat back on the bench for a moment and tried to gather my thoughts, and it wasn't easy for me. My wife-who I loved dearly-was my Momma's daughter, and I hadn't properly digested the entire situation. I tried my best to think through all the possible outcomes in a semi-sane manner, but most of them had Rynn storming off into the Badlands in the middle of the night. It was approximately eight o'clock in the evening, and Irisa had to be on duty in an hour. I wanted to talk to her about the problem, but she needed her rest.

Momma sat on the porch, and I could hear the porch swing making its creaking sound. I looked back at her, and I could tell she was dismayed with what I planned on doing. I had no choice, but to tell Rynn the truth.

In the house…

Rynn had made her way to the couch, and she continued to read her book. I sat on the edge of the couch, looked at her as she read, and then she peeked at me over her reading material. "Miat?" She asked.

"Wai norwavado snaza," I said calmly. That translated to, "We need to talk."

"Tommy, inyee na zefai nena," she said. That translated to, "Tommy, you're scaring me."

"Viti veecro nia zefai," I said. That translated to, "It's because I am scared."

"Ibra miat?" She said. That translated to, "About what?"

"Gayada inka nena?" I asked. That translated to, "Come with me?" I held her by the hand, and she slowly got up off the couch. The weight of the baby was hard on her body, especially her back. I could see the worry in her eyes, but I sensed she picked up on my pain.

By the Tarn…

"Viti fi nabaktee kim thlunyu," she said. That translated to, "It's a cool night." She faced me while we sat together on the bench. Her demeanor was calm, but I could see the worry on her face.

"Inyee shrinaga oadi kiana?" I said. That translated to, "You sense my pain?"

"Just tell me what's going on, Tommy," she said in English. "You're stressing me."

"Do you remember when you recited Robert Frost's poem to me when we were kids?" I asked calmly.

"Thei," she said.

"We sat right in your front yard, and you recited it beautifully," I said, "I was so pleased. Momma was equally pleased, but for different reasons."

"Miat twedia nowdi polgae?" She asked. That translated to, "What does that mean?"

I paused for a moment, and said, "Momma and I both saw something in you. Me, my future wife. Momma, the daughter that she gave up years earlier." I chuckled uncomfortably.

Rynn smiled. "Your Momma wanted a daughter like me?"

"Thei," I said. "Momma gave birth to a little girl," I said calmly. "She gave it up because of the war, poverty, and the pains of the Badland."

"I didn't know," Rynn said.

"It nearly killed Momma to give up her daughter," I said. "They adopted me when they found me near death in a trash heap. Iroza gave me so much love, but I saw the pain on her face." I began to cry for a moment, and then I said, "I remember when I first saw you. I was enamored with you. The way you walked. The way you talked. You were like my Mama except smaller. Even Ivy sees it in you now. Momma brought me to your house once a week until the tragedy, but it wasn't for me. She wanted to see her daughter growing up."

"Miat?" She asked.

"Mama named you Rynn," I said. "She knew it was you when you read the poem. She saw what Ivy saw. She saw what I see."

"Tommy, this is crazy talk," she snapped.

I pulled the DNA card out of my pocket, gave it to her, and said, "Mama grabbed your cup at your birthday party," I said with a grimace. "I didn't know why she had the cup at the time, but she dropped it off at the doctor's office. When the results came back, you were already gone." I handed the card to her, and she read it.

"This can't be," she said. She looked completely befuddled for a moment.

"Iroza is your Mama," I said, "Everybody knew except for us." I laughed for a moment. "You stayed with us for a month, and nobody came for you. That month was truly Antarctica to me. When I told them we were to marry, it was the perfect way to bring you home."

"Oh, Irzu," she said as she began to cry. "I'm so confused."

"Just know my love for you is real," I said, "I don't think if I had known the truth, it would have changed how I felt about you. But if this changes anything between us, it will kill me."

"I thought it all was just a fluke, Tommy," she said, "Everybody has their doppelganger. Everybody has their twin. I just thought it was coincident."

I looked at her for a moment, and I couldn't control my feelings. "I hope nothing changes between us, Rynn. I-ron adopted you. You should always hold him close to your heart. The men responsible for killing your parents still got what they deserved."

She looked at the ground for a moment, and said, "Nothing has changed between us. My love for you runs deep. It's in my veins." She smirked. "I just realized something though. I've been at home since I turned twenty. I'm at home, Tommy." She paused. "I married my little brother." She laughed for a moment. "Nothing changes between us. I'll be your wife until one of us dies. It's the way of things."

"So, you're okay?" I asked.

"Yes and no," she said, "Where do I fit in now?"

"With me. You're the heart of this farm," I said, "It's our farm, and it's producing." She scooted closer to me, and then laid her head on my lap. Making herself comfortable, I gently placed my hand on her belly. "Thank you for being so understanding, Rynn."

"We're children of the Badlands," she said softly. "You, me, Ireena, and Irisa. Life isn't easy."

Later…

It was almost nine o'clock in the evening, and I called Irisa on the radio, and she was on her hand radio. "Rynn and I can come by tonight."

"No. I'll be way too tired when I get off work," she said, "Besides, I have to get back up."

"Okay," I said, "Buzz me tomorrow first thing," I said.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

I woke up around six o'clock in the morning. I stretched while I lay in my bed, and to be honest, I was a tad upset because Rynn left before my morning nookie. I assumed the Irathient workers already did their morning routine by milking the pows and supplying Defiance with milk. Even though I had a considerable amount of pows on the far side of the farm, I didn't supply any meat to Defiance. Mister Shooty had that market, but I did supply meat to Apostasy, and it netted nearly one point five million dollars in the first few months. I discussed with Rynn about how to push more product onto the market, but I was leery about infringing on Mister Shooty's market share. I had a sizeable percentage of the wine market, and the money flowed into my coffers generously. In addition, I worked with Inola Igroy, one of my intelligent, Irathient field workers, and he had an idea on how to make a dry whiskey that I planned on selling once we had the perfect recipe. He grew a terraformed plant he called Pink Glory for its color and euphoria that came with it when eaten, smoked, or mixed with a fashionable green tea. I drank the herb a few times in my tea, and I became a belligerent mess. After the second time on the stuff, Rynn put an immediate stop to it.

"I see exactly where this is going, Tommy. Inola, you give my husband any more of this shit, I'll kill you and feed you to a hell bug queen," she snapped.

"Yes, ma'am," he said. He scurried back down to his quarters with his stash. That happened about six months ago.

Mama and Rynn began cooking, and I could tell she spent the whole night crying by her large, red eyes. I walked into the living room, and Ireena braided Ivy's hair. I placed my right hand on Ireena's left shoulder as I walked past her. I had such bad nightmares that I lost her to Apostasy that I had to touch her shoulder just to make sure she was real.

"You up?" She asked, "Rynn said you were knocked out cold." She looked up at me with her beautiful smile, and I was just happy to see it. I argued with my sister all the time, but I never wanted to lose her again, and that was the truth of the matter.

"Barely," I said, "I had a crazy dream I had to go back to Apostasy to get you again."

"You can keep that to yourself," she said laughingly. "I don't want any part of that nightmare."

I hugged her for a moment, and then she hugged me back when she realized I was in so much pain. "I always fail in my dream, Ireena," I said with a grimace. "It's the worse feeling in the world."

"I'm here because of you, brother," she said, "You've saved me multiple times. You're my hero, Tommy."

The smell of pow bacon baking in the oven permeated throughout the house. It smelled so good that I could barely contain myself. I stood up, unraveled Ireena's hair, and then began to fix her hair in a nice French braid. It was three sections of hair braided together from the crown of her head to the nape of her neck, and she looked beautiful. Since the time I found my sister in the Badlands, I've always braided her hair and she would braid my hair. We both took turns braiding Mama's hair. And since I married Rynn, we braided each other's hair often. It was the way of things. I braided Irisa's hair, and then Irisa and Rynn braided my hair together. It was the way of things. Momma and Rynn had already fixed their hair first thing in the morning, and I would probably redo it later on in the day. The twisting of the hair represented how our hearts interlocked. I was interlocked with Rynn, and Rynn was interlocked with Mama, and Mama was interlocked with Ireena, and Ireena was interlocked with Ivy. It was a tribal thing.

My handheld radio set on the coffee table, and I waited for Irisa to call. When we finished braiding hair, it was eight-thirty. Momma and Rynn had all the food done, and I carried the radio to the table.

"Rynn, have you heard from Irisa?" I asked calmly.

With a befuddled look on her face, she simply said, "No." But when she said it, it was so quiet, so feckless that I thought she was going to pass out.

"Baby, if you're not feeling well, I will clean up afterward," I said. Placing my right hand on the back of her neck, she looked over at me with a nice smile.

"It's okay," Rynn said quietly.

"It's because of me," Mama said. "I should have told you guys years ago."

"Mama, we understand why you kept us in the dark," I said.

"What's going on?" Ireena asked.

"Mama gave birth to Rynn," I said. "Rynn's her blood daughter."

"Miat?" Ireena said in disbelief. "Inyee na chinoc!" That translated to, "What? You're stupid."

"Calm down now. It's true," Mama said. "Rynn is my biological daughter."

"Really?" Ireena asked. "Cool."

"It's obvious that Ivy is the smartest person in the house," I said. I gently placed my left hand on Rynn's back, lightly massaged it, and she closed her eyes for a moment. "I love you, Rynn."

"I feel loved," she said softly. "It feels wonderful."

"You've always been loved," I said, "I can promise you that I never once stopped loving you."

I picked up the radio, pushed the button, and said, "Irisa, Little Panther. Over." I waited for a second but didn't receive a reply, and that made me nervous. Mama was looking over at me because we were waiting to hear from Irisa. I was going to head to her hovel later on in the day, and bring her to the farm.

"That's odd," Momma said. She looked dumbfounded for a moment and took a bite of her food. "She usually returns the call immediately."

"Yeah. Irisa never misses a call," Ireena said. "But she has been working a lot of shifts lately."

I looked over at Rynn, and she said, "She has been busy, but this is still very strange. She never ignores us when we call her."

"Irisa, this is Little Panther, over," I said again.

Suddenly, a crackling voice came over the radio. It appeared to cut in and out, and I thought it a bit odd. "Irisa, is that you?"

"Yeah," she said. Her voice was raspy, and she sounded a little under the weather. Her voice was barely audible.

"I'm sick, baby. Some kind of virus," she said. "It's got me hurting all over."

"Will you be ready to go in the morning?" I asked.

"No. It's a virus that's very contagious to humans according to the Doc. I'm quarantined for at least two weeks. No human contact."

"Miat?" I said. "Doc, udiaye es?" I asked. That translated to, "What? Where's the doc?"

"Baby, please. Just don't come around until I'm okay. Okay?" She said. "You're making things difficult coming at me like this."

"You know I didn't mean to," I said. "It's an important event." I looked over to my Mama, and asked, "What could be this dangerous, Mama?"

"The Irathient flu," she said with a grimace. "It's deadly to humans."

"Irisa, is it the Irathient flu?" I asked.

"Yeah. That's it," she said.

"Okay. Keep in contact. Lil Panther out," I said. I placed the radio on the table, and stuck my fork into my eggs, and then Rynn cleared her throat.

"So, we're going to pretend like your paramour isn't lying?" She asked. "She seemed very unsure about her diagnosis."

"We don't know that," I snapped. "It's Irisa. Surely it's something bad. She wouldn't just lie for the sake of lying."

"Who all thinks something was amiss about that call?" Rynn asked as she raised her right hand in the air.

All the girls, including Ivy, raised their hands. Then after a few seconds, I raised my right hand. "Something is wrong." I tapped my right index finger on the table and tried to think of the issue, and then I looked over at Mama for solace.

"I'm running into Defiance in an hour or so, and I'll go see what's going on," Momma said. "If the Irathient flu was prevalent, I'd already know. I'm always apprised of an outbreak. The Votan Collective sends me an email alert when a new strain of the Irathient flu arrives."

After breakfast, the girls cleaned up and Momma took off for Defiance, but I went fishing in the pond to clear my nerves. I was unraveled by Irisa's behavior, and Rynn knew it. She gave me some medicine to help me relax, but nothing was more relaxing than fishing. Rynn decided she'd bake some more chocolate truffles for the event, and I felt good about that. I sat on the bench with my Po-Tech pistol around my waist and set my rod in a tube on the right side of the bench. I waited for a bite, but I knew there wouldn't be many. The morning air was warmer than usual, and I had already started to sweat. I heard a rumble across from the pond, and I assumed it was a hell bug warrior gnawing at my fence on the other side.

Rynn walked outside with the radio and handed it to me. Her braided hair looked worn because of sweating over the hot stove. "You're going to need this, honey."

"Is it Mama?" I asked.

"No. But she'll call as soon as she finds out about Irisa," she said, "So keep it with you."

"Thank you, honey," I said. "I know something is wrong with Irisa. I feel it."

"I feel it too," she said softly. "Maybe it's merely mass madness on our part. Maybe there isn't anything wrong with her except the flu. I hope she's okay, but I feel it's something else."

Rynn walked back into the house, and her stomach looked larger today than yesterday. She had an appointment with the doctor on Tuesday for a checkup. I felt it was needed because of all the radioactivity in the area. According to the meter, everything was normal, but I always worried about our unborn baby. The good thing about Rynn was she didn't play around when it came to the health of the baby. She pretty much had the same concerns as me: radioactivity, genetic abnormalities, and baby thieves who lived in the Badlands.

I could have gone to Defiance myself to check on my paramour, but if she were telling the truth, the flu could actually kill me. Even with a flu shot, it may or may not work with direct exposure to an infected Irathient. Momma always worried about my health so she made the Irathient flu shot paramount in our lives, and I thank Irzu for her. I barely remember my birth parents, and as far as I know, they died in the Pale Wars.

The line tightened, the rod swayed back and forth, and when I grabbed it, I gave it a good yank towards me. I brought out a nice sized catfish, and before I could remove the hook, Rynn ran out the house and snatched it up.

"That's a good sized one," she said smilingly. As soon as she came out the house, she had on her heavy duty work gloves, the black ones, and grabbed ahold of the fish. In her utilitarian clothes, she pulled out some needle nose pliers from one of the pockets. It happened so fast that I wasn't prepared for it. With her hand on its back, she grabbed the catfish firmly by its gills. With the needle nose pliers, she unfastened the hook from the creature's mouth. It was just Rynn being Rynn, and it was another reason why I found her so amazing. "Catch one more, and we'll have enough for tonight's dinner."

I placed some more stink bait on the hook, sat back on the bench, and then cast another line. I heard some static on the radio but didn't hear any voices. I wanted Momma to hurry up and call because Irisa weighed heavy on my thoughts. In all honesty, I should have gone into Defiance myself for a number of reasons, and the main one being Irisa's health. Secondly, I still had Rynn's bracelet at the jewelry store, and the jeweler promised he'd have it ready by noon today. Thirdly, and even though I hadn't mentioned much about Rachel's bruises, I wanted to ensure her boyfriend hadn't killed her. In addition, at some point, I wanted to address the amount of spousal abuse in the Defiance community as a whole. Several of the intellects in the community estimated every woman in Defiance experienced direct or indirect abuse at the hands of their spouses.

I talked to Professor Do'Ella Quova and niggled her research over the numbers because she stated in front of the City Council that every woman in Defiance suffered some form of abuse. I became defensive over the subject matter because I immediately made it about me. I couldn't imagine beating Rynn because of a disagreement. She had her own opinions and I respected that.

"I've never raised a fist to my wife or my paramour," I said as I stood with the other council members. Professor Do'Ell Quova stood directly in front of us with her perfectly bald head. Her visage was much more feminine than Doctor Yewll's visage, and a curvier body. Until I met the professor, I thought all Indogenes were the same. On the left side of her face, she wore some kind of scanner that gave her the ability to access the intermittent computer network that ran through Defiance. The only reason I knew about her device was that I was nosey enough to ask.

"You've abused them in some fashion, shape, or form, sir," she said, "You've done something that's on your mind right now that fits into my definition of abuse. It's a demon we must face as a community or it will tear us up from the inside."

"Hogwash," Datak screamed. He became somewhat belligerent over the numbers and immediately put it up for a vote. The entire council voted against her work and pulled the seventy thousand scripts from her funding. She abruptly left out of the room, and I understood her anger, but she touched me.

I must admit that after Professor Do'Ell Quova spoke I didn't listen to anybody else who spoke that evening. I tried to listen, but I knew her findings were correct. I knew exactly what I did to Rynn and Irisa, especially Rynn when I didn't get my way. I never used violence against my wife. I'd never act like Irocuz. I won't ever be accused of that. But when she chose to separate from me because I accepted the Law Keeper's position, my mind wasn't right for a long time. Before she stood apart from me, we often discussed when we'd start a family, and one of the agreements was we'll always concur when to start a family. This was a law between us, a line that wasn't meant to be crossed. But one evening, when she unexpectedly came to my hovel, we engaged in coitus. I didn't have protection available, but I promised her I would pull out before I ejaculated. I had never messed up in the past because like I implied previously, children were planned events and not mistakes. I ejaculated in her, and when she tried to pull away from me, I locked her down so she couldn't move. Rynn looked at me with her yellow eyes, and without expression, but to me, her countenance said everything: you've broken my trust. She didn't hesitate to tell me that I infringed on an agreement that we had for four years at that time. And the way she looked at me broke my heart and left me ashamed of myself. It was a selfish move, and I had abused the person I loved more than anybody in the world. Even though Rynn didn't call it rape, I knew exactly what I had done. I tried to impregnate her so she'd return to me. I wanted to use our child against her. She forgave me immediately, and I never acted in that manner again, but it left an indelible mark on my soul.

With a lot of thought, I found Professor Do'Ell Quova in the NeedWant. Rynn sat at the bar with Irisa, and I called them both over to the table. The Professor tried to leave, but I implored her to stay, and have a drink with us because I found her work to be of some value to the health of the community.

"Rynn, what do you think about the amount of spousal abuse in Defiance?" I asked. What I loved about Rynn was I knew she'd take her time to answer the question after thoroughly thinking about it.

"It's horrible," she said softly. "I'm trying to think of a woman not being beaten or pushed around on the daily, and I'm thinking Irisa and I are the luckiest women in Defiance."

"I want our family to donate one hundred thousand scripts to support Professor Do'Ell Quova's project," I said.

Rynn pulled out a small notebook, calculator, and started writing down figures. "We can safely meet that number."

"You'll really fund my research, sir?" She asked.

"Yes," I said with a smile.

'Lil' Panther, this is Big Mama. Over," Mama said.

"Go ahead, Mama," I said.

"You need to come to Defiance now," she said, "Drop whatever you're doing and get here."

Defiance: Eleven O'Clock in the morning…

I drove my fancier roller into town, and everybody came with me: Rynn, Ireena, and Ivy. I rolled right up to the medical facility, and my heart raced. Mama had already told me it wasn't the Irathient flu but left it at that. When I walked into the facility, Irisa lay on a hospital bed with tubes going into her nose, and other parts of her body. She cried when she saw me and started apologizing for not telling me the truth. As she shook her head in the negative and cried about fibbing to me, I kissed her on the forehead and gave her a hug. Her face was battered, and there wasn't an inch without an abrasion. She had bandages on her right arm, and some around her stomach.

"Baby, what happened?" I asked. "Who would do this?" She began to sob loudly.

"Okay. If you're going to upset my patient, then get the hell out," Doc said.

"Who would do this to my paramour?" I asked angrily.

Rynn walked over to me, held my hand, and asked, "Who did this to you, Irisa?"

"I don't know," she said. "They attacked Datak. When I confronted them, they attacked me. It was too many of them." I guided Rynn to the chair next to Irisa's bed, so she could rest. I looked across the way, and the Doc sat in her office going over some paperwork.

"Rynn, maybe the Doc can do a quick checkup on the baby," I said.

"Good idea," she said.

I turned back to Irisa, and asked, "Where's the ring?"

She placed her left hand up to her face and began sobbing loudly. "They stole it off my finger. I'm sorry, honey."

"I will replace the ring, but I can't replace you," I said. "It's a symbol of my love for you."

I talked to her for about thirty more minutes before I left out for a moment. I raced to the jeweler and picked up Rynn's bracelet, and it was a fine piece of jewelry. "Somebody stole my paramour's ring. If you come across it, please call me immediately," I said to the man.

"Yes, sir, Councilmen Tar," he said, "Anything for the man who has single-handedly put my children through college."

I laughed. "I'm not even telling my wife how much the bracelet cost." I left out of his store and stuffed it deep into my front pocket. I spent twenty thousand scripts on the bracelet, and I didn't want her nagging me about spending that much money. With the propitious wine sales, rental properties, pow meat sales, and investments, I had accumulated a small fortune. I walked back to the medical clinic, and Rynn checked out with a clean bill of health. The baby was doing fine, so I was satisfied with that.

Rynn and I stayed with Irisa until about two in the afternoon, brought her some lunch, and entertained her. I fed her the food, but she could barely chew. I'm not going to lie, but I was extremely upset. The Doc expected to release her on Monday, and I asked her to come to the farm with the family, but she wanted some time to reflect at home. Ireena, Momma, and Ivy traveled back to the farm, and I begged Irisa several more times to stay at the farm while she recovered, and she continued to tell me that she needed time to think about things. Of course, I automatically thought she needed time to think about me, but I was selfish like that. On the way back home, Rynn reminded me of the stolen ring.

"It's highly possible the ring is at a pawn shop," Rynn said.

"Irisa said they immediately left town after the attack," I said with a grimace. "I hate the fact that somebody stole her ring, but I must take solace in the fact that she's alive." I paused for a moment. "I did advise the seller some miscreants stole the ring, and to be on the lookout."

"But who is this they?" She asked. "We're talking about the attack on law keepers."

"They attacked Datak and Irisa. I don't know why Nolan isn't doing anything about this," I said. "None of the ark hunters roaming through the city would bring that kind of heat on their operations."

"You're being awfully calm about this," she said.

I looked over at her for a moment, and then said, "Defiance doesn't need to know any more about me than what they already know."

"When you became a law keeper, it was contrary to who you really are," she said, "Tommy Tar is the Black Irath, an extremely dangerous Ark Hunter who preys on the predator. You and your father have a substantial body count. Are you still that person? What happens when you find the men who hurt your paramour?"

I looked over at Rynn for a moment, and said, "Irisa's alive. Nobody died. I just want the ring back, and I can forgive the men who attacked her."

"Is it safe to say there's a Tommy you want to be, you know a merciful, magnanimous person who gives freely of his money and time." She paused for a moment, and then said, "I love that you have desires to be that kind of guy. But I must be honest with you, you're not that guy, Tommy. Defiance, the uniform, Clancy, or Nolan didn't tame the feral, black Irath. I know my husband. I know what made you. The Badlands educated you, and for eighteen years, you didn't resist her tutelage."

"I wish I could be the husband you deserve, Rynn," I said with a grimace. I felt a lot of stress because I tried my best to be better than Irocuz in every way, but I wasn't. I killed plenty of people through the years and helped in killing many more. Ark hunting was a harsh lifestyle, a kill or be killed lifestyle, and I was a master of that lifestyle. "I'm going to find out who hurt Irisa. I'm already estimating it may take days or even months, but I will find out. And when I do, I'm going to kill them."

"I suspected as much," she said. "On the Branson Arkfall, I know you killed the Parker boys who defaced your roller."

I looked at her for a moment, and then asked, "The story went like that, Rynn? You're telling me you think I killed a family over defacing my roller?"

"That's the story the tribes heard," she said, "I just pretended like I didn't know."

"Irocuz demanded I go on that Arkfall."

"I remember the argument," she said. "But it's the head on spikes that caused the uproar."

 **I looked over at her for a moment with a scowl on my face, and said, "I wanted to find my sister, Rynn. We ran into those Parker boys, and they threatened my father after we stumbled on their handiwork of some Castithan girls who were no more than sixteen-years-old. They gutted those girls, Rynn. Repeatedly, they called my father a dirty slag, spit on him, and threw him to the ground," I paused for a moment. "I didn't know my father was sick at that time. He just didn't have the strength to fight. You tell me what I should have done as a group of murderous men accosted the only father I knew and just murdered three, innocent girls? Maybe the decapitation part was a bit much. I can agree to that, but nobody fucks with a Tar, Rynn Tar. I mean it."**

"Just as long as we're clear," she said.

Back home...

I sat on a small mound on the other side of the tarn, and Rynn walked into the house. I needed time to think, to clear my head, and she was in a mood that kept me from doing that. When I walked over to the small hill, the law of the house was to leave me alone to think. I felt she wanted to keep me from what I had to do, and that was finding who hurt Irisa. The Badlands' laws were draconian in nature, and every man with a grievance had a chance to be the executioner, and I already placed judgment on the person who hurt my paramour. I didn't know anything about mercy when it came to those who hurt the people I loved, and Rynn knew me. I tried to show her another side of me, but she saw through my facade. I thought I could change. I wanted to change, but now all I wanted to do was find the people who hurt Irisa. I wasn't the type of person whose anger mitigated with time. Tomorrow would be the same as now, and the next day after that would be the same as tomorrow until I had the heads of the people who hurt my paramour on spikes.

I don't know how I felt about all the killing in the Badlands; it was a necessary evil, a requirement for survival, and I mastered it at a very young age. Due to the fact we always went for the expensive wiring in the vessels increased the chances of death, but we used valuable and hard to get specialized gloves with shock resistant boots to extract it. We ignored the orbs, and gadgets, but took the weapons and wiring. Before I ever went on my first ark-hunt, Irocuz trained me on extracting the wiring with markups in the barn. It was a tedious task, but we trained in between my language lessons. And when I thought my day had concluded, we practiced shooting targets from different firing positions. I mastered the handgun, shotgun, detonator, bow, and I was already pretty nifty with a charge blade. By the time Irocuz and I had finished ransacking my third ark, I had racked up seven kills, and all of them were cases of self-defense.

When we met up at the designated, Arkhunter bars in whatever area we were located, Irocuz and I sat in the back and minded our own business. Often, hunters made snide remarks, but I would simply say, "Don't start nothing and there won't be nothing." I often coddled a beer while my father guzzled down as many as his body would hold, and I often became his overwatch. The wiring brought in high profits, so Irocuz always had money, and loads of it.

Humans chose to single out Irocuz while we sat in the back of the bar because they knew he had money. They never changed their hateful rhetoric. Most accused him of single-handedly destroying the planet, and it angered me in such a way that I wanted to kill them immediately. It was like they used a script to torment my father, and he'd sit in the back with me in utter silence. He'd be completely drunk, and I'd escort him back to our roller, and every single time, they'd follow us. We expected them to follow us.

It was eight years earlier, and I was about fourteen almost fifteen when I committed my first mass murder. Irocuz berated me because he swore he told me to grab the Volge rifle that laid in the middle of the floor in the Altus Arkfall. Due to an outbreak of zombies in the area, we wanted to move in and move out of the ark quickly. When we were halfway to Oklahoma City, he asked if I grabbed the weapon, and when I told him no, he went on a twenty-minute rant about how useless I was as a son.

"You're just your mama's boy, and worthless to me," he snapped. "I asked you to grab the gun, and you just conveniently left it."

I began to sob, and then I said, "Inyee ubia chodi nena!" That translated to, "You didn't tell me."

"Inyee na inyani mapi unee," he said with a grimace on his face. I didn't mind him telling me that I was my mother's son, but he meant it as a slight.

"Ni okada," I said calmly. That translated to, "I agree." Due to the war, the radiation, the hell bug attacks, drug abuse, cancers, and terraforming, Oklahoma city, and the surrounding area had nearly eight hundred thousand deaths. Anybody who had the means to leave left, but the dirtiest and nastiest-and vilest people remained. They were the predators. He drove us to a small bar called Big Boys, and he was most likely the only Irathient in a twenty-mile radius.

"I'm not going in," I said with a grimace.

"I just don't care," he said, "I don't want to drink with you anyway, you little pussy."

I laid the seat back, pulled the VBI machine gun from under my seat, and placed it in the passenger's seat. I saw a group of men walk into the bar, but I didn't think anything about it. It was a Friday, and I expected people would be partying. I locked both doors of the roller because I didn't want people sneaking up on me while I slept. I might have been asleep for fifteen minutes, but I wasn't sure. I didn't check the time when I dozed off. I heard Irocuz scream, and when I opened my eyes, at least twelve men surrounded him. They pushed him back and forth in the circle, and then one of the guys struck him in the face, and he flew backward onto his back. I immediately grabbed the VBI rifle, exited the vehicle, and ran towards the crowd. Before any of them noticed me, I pulled the trigger, and the bodies started falling. I mowed down everybody standing with my father. Some of them tried to run, but I shot them in the back.

I screamed at Irocus, and said, "Ga ee nay!" He hopped off the ground, and we jumped into the roller. It started raining and raining hard, but it didn't slow us down. I threw the gun in the back seat and drove back home.

When Irocuz and I arrived back home nearly six hours later, he didn't thank me for saving his life. In fact, he didn't mention anything at all, and that bothered me. The man raised me, and I shouldn't have expected anything further from him. Saving him was part of being a son, and I shouldn't have expected a thank you. After a few days of ruminating about the killings, I discussed it with my Momma. "Ni ubia shopa kadia," I said. That translated to, "I didn't feel nothing." I looked over at her, and I worried that she would look at me differently. "Ni vordi fefi inyee droadiai nena." That translated to, "I don't want you hating me."

She looked at me with a serious visage, and it made me nervous. I knew Irocuz hated me most days of the week, and if Mama hated me then all I had was Ireena. "Inyee fratae inyani Papi uado shidda." She said to me, "You protected your father and family." She held my hands, and then said, "Tro Badlands na radi. Inyee na radicaei. Viti es miat es." Momma basically said to me that the Badlands was a dangerous place, and I had to be more dangerous. It was a transliteration. Radi meant bad, and then radicaei meant worse. The last thing she told me was, "It is what it is." That was the literal translation, but it actually meant, "It's the way of the Badlands." Momma gave me advice all the time, and I expected her to do so. It was that modicum amount of advice that changed the way I operated in the Badlands. Protecting my family was paramount, so when the demons of Apostasy stole Ireena, my actions were in harmony with what Momma told me to do. When the Parker boys attacked Irocuz, it was understandable why I killed them, and put their heads on spikes. And now that somebody attacked my paramour and stole her ring, I won't show an ounce of mercy because _it is what it is_.

Momma walked out to the mound, and she was the only one who would do such a thing because it was my place of solace, the place where I could unwind. She stood next to me for a moment and started a conversation that would anger me beyond anything I could fathom.

"You don't see me cry often," she said softly. She laughed for a moment, and then said, "You don't see too many Irathient women just crying, even when they're in physical pain." She paused for a moment. When I gave up Rynn to the collective, I cried hard. I think I bawled for a year, and it drove your father mad."

"Momma, what's the point of this?" I asked.

"Shut up, and listen to your Momma," she said. "Don't open your mouth again until I'm done." She hugged me, and then said, "When we found you in the trash, I think it was one of the happiest days of my life. I loved you so much." She looked down at the ground for a moment. "When Irocuz beat me, I didn't cry. When he threw me to the ground, you laid on top of me to protect me from his kicks, and he kicked you. I cried so hard because he kicked you that I promised him when his eyes closed, I'd kill him in his sleep for that. I didn't do it because you begged me to let him live." She looked over at me, and asked, "Do you remember that?"

"Yes, Mama," I said.

"The next unforgettable event in my life was when you became enamored with Rynn, and I realized she was my actual daughter. I cried for so long when the evil men hurt her, and she had to go away. The same thing happened when the evil men stole Ireena." Her countenance changed for a moment, and she became extremely serious. "Your paramour cried hard when I entered her room, and she begged me not to call you. She's a law-keeper. The Badlands raised her. She's hard. Strangers beating her would make her angry, but she wouldn't break down like she did. The doctor has her on seventy-two-hour watch."

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"I surmise the attack caused her to miscarriage," She said.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't think she knew she was pregnant," she said, "It's my summation."

I couldn't believe what she had said, and now my heart raced. I tried my best not to show any emotion, but I seethed with anger. "If she were pregnant, Mama. I will find who did this, and kill everybody who hurt her."

She looked at me with her large yellow eyes, and said, "You do what you do best, and you find who hurt your paramour and kill them."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Momma walked away after implying Irisa might have been pregnant, and the thought of the possibility angered me. She and I had been trying to get pregnant since Rynn announced her pregnancy a few months earlier. I walked the grounds for a few hours to gather my thoughts over the possibility that my Irisa was carrying my child. I thought back to her face when she lay on the hospital bed, and the bruises were substantial, but I didn't think she might have been pregnant. She lay there sobbing, and all I wanted to do was hold her. I could hear some rustling from downwind, and it probably was some hellbugs tearing up the fence my Irathient workers put in last week. Most of the time the critters stayed away from the main house, but if we didn't dispose of some trash properly, a few of them would be in the front yard causing a problem.

I walked back over to the house, and Rynn cut potatoes on the back porch with a bandana wrapped around her head, and I thought _if anybody ever touched her I would gut them without question_.

"I'm making some pow burgers and fries for dinner. I cleaned the fish, put it in the freezer, and we'll eat it next week," she said calmly. I knew her and Mama talked through the night about life, about why Mama gave her up, and why Mama never told us, and even with that revelation, I never quite understood why it took so long for her to tell us.

"Did Momma tell you what she thought about Irisa?" I asked.

She looked up at me with her dreary, yellow eyes, and gave a half smile. "Yeah," she said, "She's a girl from the Badlands. She doesn't break easily." While peeling the potatoes, she kind of smiled, and then tears fell from her eyes. "Something affected her deeply."

"So, you think she was pregnant and lost the baby during the melee?" I asked.

She reached behind her back, pulled out the radio, and then said, "Call her and see." She looked me directly in the eyes, with her right arm extended with the radio, and then said, "It's the only way to know for sure."

I grabbed the radio and watched my wife for a moment, but she kept cutting the potatoes like that was all that mattered. It was around five in the afternoon, and the Crickets made an awful racket in the background. I could hear the Iraths shooting the hellbugs, and laughing loudly. I sat on the steps next to Rynn, and she cleared her throat like I wasn't welcomed, but I sat down in spite of her audible disapproval. "Why must you act this way when I'm already upset?"

"You ever think you're misinterpreting my concerns as being contrary to your concerns?" She asked. "You don't think I'm worried that you're going to do what you do when you find out who hurt your paramour?" She paused for a moment. "You have a family. You have a baby on the way, and I sense you're about to do something awful, Tommy."

I looked over at her, and I could tell by her expression that she was in a mood. "I've already set you up with a sizable amount of money in case something were to happen to me."

"That's not going to replace you, Tommy," she said, "Ten, twenty, thirty million dollars won't be a substitute for you."

"How about thirty million and one dollars?" I asked.

"Quit joking," she said. "I'm serious."

"You know I'm not going to back off this," I said, "When I find out the truth, I will investigate it, find out everybody who put hands on her and then take them out. That's what I'm going to do, and if it takes me ten years to do it, then so be it. Nobody messes with my family."

"Then if it's like that, why don't you drag her butt out here like an Irathient male would do, and make her stay? It's not like you can track down every miscreant who puts their hands on her while she's a deputy law keeper."

"I'm not going to demand that," I said with anger in my voice. "She's her own person."

"But yet her father does nothing to find out who did this?" She said, "That's bullshit, and you know it, Tommy. I'm my own person too, but you don't see me putting myself in unnecessary danger."

I just shook my head in confusion or disagreement-or just in the moment because I was angry in such a way that was hard to express. "What time will dinner be ready?" I asked.

"'Bout eight-thirty," she said.

I looked at my watch for a long minute. It was a way for me to think what I needed to do to bring some understanding and closure to what had happened to Irisa. "I'm heading to Defiance," I said. "I'll be right back in a little while."

"You won't make it back in time," she said. "I'll leave you a plate on the side."

Defiance: Law Keeper's Office…

I walked into the law keeper's office, and Jeb stood looking out the window. He had on his dusty, brown jacket with the broken zipper and a wad of tobacco in his mouth. His craggy face gave an image of a man who liked more than his fair share of spirits. The office smelled musty, and I could tell my old boss struggled with some powerful demons.

"Are you going to do anything about the attack on Irisa?" I asked. I walked over to my paramour's desk, took a seat, and then focused all my attention on Jeb Nolan.

He looked back at me for a moment, and with a straight face he said, "Nothing to do." He spat in an old bottle that was half full and looked rather nasty. He obviously hadn't emptied his spit bottle in days, and it had a stench to it. "The gang that attacked her is long gone by now."

"How do you know this?" I asked. His lack of ambition over bringing the criminals to justice dismayed me on every level imaginable. I still didn't know if she was pregnant or not, but I wanted some ideas on who might have attacked her. It was like Jeb didn't care, and that bothered me tremendously.

"It's indicative of those Arkhunter types," he said. "They're the dregs of society."

When I heard him say that, I became incensed. "Are you freaking kidding me? We're those Arkhunter types that you hate so much, Nolan. Your daughter who is my paramour and dear to me was brutally attacked. What do you plan on doing about it?"

"It comes with being a law keeper," he said calmly. I couldn't believe what he had said to me, and I found his lack of initiative on the matter disheartening, to say the least. I walked out of his office, and he said, "Don't involve yourself in this matter, Tommy. Let the Black Irath stay dead."

I looked back at him for a moment, and said, "Don't interfere, Nolan. He saved your life once." I held up the bracelet that he gave me after he found out I killed the men who attempted to kill him. I was only fourteen then, but he didn't find out I was the kid who saved his life until last year. "I'm not going to let her attacker or attackers get away with this."

The Doctor's Office…

I walked into Doc Yewll's office, and she sat behind her desk eating a Moshi Pie, a gelatin looking pie with a crust made with ground up fish scales and rice. I had it a few times, and it wasn't bad, but the thought of what was in the meal caused me to cringe. I walked right past her desk without saying a word, and she said, "Hey! You don't speak now?"

"I'm just here to see Irisa," I said without turning around. I walked to her bed in the next room, and her face was blacker and bluer now than the previous time. I stood by her while she lay quiet in her place of rest and healing, and she looked straight ahead like I wasn't standing next to her. Placing my left hand on her forehead, she began to sob, and then I hugged her. "Talk to me, Irisa," I said as I gently held her right hand. "Who did this to you?"

She turned to me, and it looked like she bled a little from her left eye socket. Her nose looked like the unknown assailants broke it. When she started speaking, tears raced down her face, and she eventually said, "I don't know, Tommy." Pulling away from my hands, she pulled her sheets above her head and didn't want me to see her tears.

"You don't need to hide your face from me, Irisa," I said calmly. "Your pain is my pain."

"I'm sorry," she said as she continued to sob loudly. Doc Meh Yewll entered into her room and started fussing at me.

"Tommy! Quit stressing out my patient!" She yelled.

I looked up at Irisa, and asked, "Were you pregnant?"

"Tommy!" Doc Yewll screamed.

"Then you tell me, Doc?" I asked, "Was Irisa pregnant with my child?" I asked. "Don't you stand there and lie to me either."

Irisa began wailing, and cried out, "They killed our baby. Oh, Irzu. It hurts so bad."

I turned to her, held her as close as I could physically, and tried to comfort her, but her body trembled underneath me. She was truly hurting from losing the baby, and I hurt from it too. "It'll be okay, honey."

"I didn't know I was pregnant," she said, "I didn't, Tommy. I wanted a baby so badly."

I kissed her on the forehead, and asked, "What can you remember about the attackers?"

"Enough of this," Doc Meh Yewll said with a commanding voice. "Go ask your brother what happened."

"My brother?" I asked.

"Yeah. Datak," she said.

"So, you think Datak and I are that close?" I asked with a grimace.

"Listen! I'm just saying he was there," she said. "Don't get snippy with me!"

I turned to Irisa, placed my hands on her face, and said, "I'm sorry."

"What are you going to do?" She asked. I walked out of her room, and she screamed for me to return, but I wouldn't. I couldn't because now that I knew the truth I was extremely angry. Some miscreants killed my child and stole Irisa's ring. I had to do my best not to work the case while going down the path of madness. The women in my life were of the utmost importance to me, and I was willing to move the heavens and the earth for each one of them. It was now seven o'clock in the evening, and I wasn't going to make it to dinner. It just wasn't going to happen.

Datak's Residence…

For some reason, Datak chose to reside in the center of the Hollows in one of the largest houses in the area. It was all white on the outside and had an eerie feeling about it. The area directly in front of his house was made of white brick, and a bush of white flowers set directly in front of the house. Another set of bushes stood on either side of the front door, and they were beautiful. A guard by the name of Chaka Vina, a Castithan male, stood outside of Datak's mansion. He had a bio-man who sat in the guard shack directly in front of the house, and I said, "Tell Datak I'm here."

"Yes, sir," he said in a deep voice. The Bio-humans were odd looking creatures: blue, strong, and dumb. The dumbness part of the Bio-human's make up was nothing more than a perceived trait due to the outer appearance; however, there were several Bio-humans who were highly intelligent and worked on research improving the toxic atmosphere. In addition, the color of the synthetic humans varied from white to black, but the first three generations were blue. In addition, I knew about several more models of Bio-humans who were female, and their races were ambiguous: couldn't tell if they were synthetics, humans, Castithans or whatever, and some of them could assume other races. Datak's guard was of the original Bio-human stock, and for all tense and purposes, below average in intelligence.

When I approached the door Chaka Vina-a male Castithan of the lower order-guarded the door. He stood nearly six-foot-five, thin lips, and a small, narrow nose with yellow eyes that set too close together. I immediately knew he was from the Secundo Inferos Class, and that was referred to as the Second Lower Class of the Castithan people. It was the fifth class in the five Castithan classes. He was, slender, and ethereal looking, but his family name Vina placed him squarely in the lower order. As soon as I walked up to the door, he opened it, and then a lightly dressed Castithan woman escorted me to the bath.

Due to my Mama, my ken on all things Castithan stretched far beyond the average man's knowledge of them, and that was because of their cunning intelligence to claw their way into leadership positions. This wasn't an indicative trait in the Tertio Excelsis caste system on down, but an attribute in the top two castes: Summitatem and Secundo Excelsis. Tre La Tian was the Castithan who escorted me into the bath, and she was of the Tertio Excelsis Class, and Mama didn't trust them at all. When the Voltans first landed on Earth, a number of them were housed together in Olmec, Mexico. The Irathients and Tertio Excelsis were housed together, and pretty much was considered the same as far as treatment. Mama told me when the Iraths received anything, they shared it with the community including the Tertio Excelsis and Liberati. The Liberati was the same way when they received clothes, foods, and other goods. But when it came to the Tertio Excelsis Class, they hid whatever they received, and never shared with the community.

I knew Tre La Tian before I met Irisa and after Rynn broke off our precious relationship. We walked the Hollows and ate fried fritters in the Bazaar, but that summed it up. We didn't take it to the ethereal level by bathing under soft lights and bubbly water, nor did I want to at the time. In those days, I wanted Rynn back in my life and I had a hard time finding attractiveness in anybody or anything. But when it came to Datak and his wife, Stahma Tarr, they were mismatched in both style and caste. I tried to respect the caste system when dealing with the Castithans, but I thought it was convoluted. But at the same time, Datak and Stahma were so mismatched that it was uncanny and an abomination to Castithans everywhere that a Secundo Inferos would even think about marrying a Summitatem. Due to all my rigorous studies, my Mama put me through, I argued with Datak over his marriage when he accused me of being married to Rynn many years prior. I told him, "Your marriage is an abomination in the eyes of your people." He laughed at me when I said that.

"That proves my point, you black Irath," Datak said. "No human knows of the Castithan caste system like you do. You were raised by an Irath of the upper class. You're fooling nobody, son."

When I entered into the pool area, Datak sat in the water, and he looked like he had been beaten just as bad as Irisa. His eyes were blackened, lips were swollen, and head cracked.

"I know why you're here, Councilman Tar," Datak said in a calm demeanor.

"Irisia was carrying my baby," I said calmly.

"I see," Stahma said as she climbed out of the water. "So, you're Tro Blassie Veenager?"

"Thei," I said with a grimace. "I am the Black Ranger."

Datak sat out of the pool, Stahma walked out the room, and Datak shooed the rest of his servants away. "So, Tro Blassie Veenager is a killer, Tommy. What are you saying?"

"They beat my paramour, stole her ring, and killed my baby," I said with a grimace. "I can't allow them to take everything I have without answering in kind."

He looked over at me as I paced the floor for a moment, and said, "I kicked them out of my club, but I didn't get a good look at them."

"Any names or anything?" I asked.

"Nothing," he said. "When I escorted them out of the Needwant, they attacked me from behind, and started beating me while I was on the ground." He stopped speaking and thought for a moment. "One of the men had a face mask. When Irisa ran over to the scene, she grabbed the man by the mask, and his face was hideous. It looked like somebody carved it off with a charge blade."

"What?" I asked.

"Yeah. His face," he said while squinting his eyes. "It was horrible. I also remember their car. It had skulls on it."

"Are you sure, Datak?" I asked with a grimace.

"Yeah. It was nothing more than a random attack," Datak said. "Just a group of thugs."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

I loved the Arcadian lifestyle of the farm, and so did Rynn. Living on the farm brought us closer to the earth and it made us closer as a family. I knew deep down she didn't want me to find out who hurt Irisa by the way she acted towards me. I had a hard time forgiving the people who hurt my family, and even though Irisa was my paramour, I considered her my family. She had a calmly look on her face since I returned from Defiance, and I knew that meant she doubted my plans. I had already made it know that I would kill the men who hurt Irisa, and I wasn't about to back off that. Her hair was long, all the way down her back, and curly. I could tell she had been crying earlier in the day, but that was because I told her I planned on making a move against the men who hurt my paramour.

We walked up to Irocuz's grave in the middle of the night, around ten thirty, and I had a shovel with me. Rynn folded her arms tightly as if she didn't want to touch me. The wind blew her hair into every direction. When I started digging, she just looked at me for a moment, and then asked, "What're you doing, Tommy?"

"First rule of revenge," I said as I continued to dig. "When seeking revenge, you dig two graves." She sighed in disapproval, but it didn't matter. I had to do what I had to do. The Badlands-at least in my area-had some good, soft soil, and it didn't take long to dig a good sized hole.

"You know who hurt Irisa, don't you?" She asked. Looking down at me as I stood in the hole, she frowned. I knew she wasn't happy with me, but at the same time, I wasn't happy with me. Something inside of me forced my hand when it came to the women in my life.

"Yes," I said as I stopped digging for a second. Rynn looked out into the Badlands away from the house, and she had tears in her eyes. "The Busy Baker Boys attacked her. I should've known it was them."

She squatted for a moment, placed her left hand on her sweaty forehead, and then looked at the sweat on her palm. The night air was hot, and she had beads of sweat on her face that began to drip between her breast. I knew the baby was acting up because of the heat. "Did they even know she was your family?" She asked.

"I'm not sure," I said. "If they did, they would have killed her as payback. All I can think about is they took my child from me. I want payback."

"So, you're obviously planning on killing them," she said, "But when?"

"Soon," I said. "You can't be involved, though. I won't let you be a part of this."

"Why not?" She asked. "I'm capable."

"I'm not going to argue with you, Rynn, but you're responsible for two lives right now," I said.

"And you're responsible for six," she said, "Me, your baby, your sister, your momma, your niece, and Irisa, but you're willing to throw it all away."

"I just don't want to think about something bad happening to you or our baby, Rynn. I can't handle that," I said. "You go to Sukar's house like you planned."

"I thought you put Tro Blassie Veenager to rest," she said with a grimace on her face. "Didn't you tell me that after we saved Ireena? You said no more killing."

"I'd love to put him to sleep for good," I said with a scowl on my face. "But they killed my baby. They beat my paramour. What would you have me do?"

"I understand. The Spirit Riders raised me, but I never grew a liking to killing, Tommy," she said. "Not like you. It's like death lurks in the back of your mind. I feel it," she said as she patted her right hand on her chest.

"I'd like to think there was another way to handle this," I said. "But they killed my child, Rynn. Now, I choose to roam the Badlands, take my revenge on the men who did that, and when I'm done with them, we can go back to being family.."

"As the sensible one in our marriage, I'm going to ask you NOT to do this," she said. "You go back to Defiance, get your paramour, and bring her here. In a few months, try again to make a baby." She began to sob loudly. "But you won't do that, will you? That route is just to easy for Tro Blassie Veenager. You're going to get yourself killed, Tommy. I will support you in whatever you decide to do, but I don't have to like it." She began to walk away, and then I climbed out of the hole. She turned back to me, and said, "Just make sure you come back to me and your baby after you're done."

"If I don't make it through this, just know there wasn't anything I wouldn't do for family," I said. "I thought about you every day since I was a kid, Rynn. I'll think of you every day until I breathe my last breath."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Rynn, Mama, Ireena, and Ivy took the secondary roller to Mister Shooty's mansion, and I chose to drive alone because of all the heavy artillery I needed to carry. I had a good night sleep while I held Rynn for the entire night, and awoke around six o'clock in the morning. Mama prepared us a nice breakfast, but I spent a little time packing my roller full of guns, ammo, and small explosives. I had Irocuz's favorite weapon with me called the Gangbuster; it was a specialized detonator with a sticky projectile that stuck onto its target, and then exploded after five seconds. When it came to my weaponry, I didn't play games. In addition, I had my specialized, Tripleshot Fragger, and it was a deadly, an undeniably dangerous weapon. It fired in a three round burst, and the last shot burned everything within its path.

Recently, I purchased a bolt action sniper rifle called the BAS-7 Derailer, and I could put a bullet center mass over two thousand yards away. It was one of my favorite, least messy weapons in my arsenal. The rest of my guns left a massive amount of devastation, and if the Busy Baker Boys resided in the old ruins, then I planned on burning it to the ground.

When we arrived at Mister Shooty's mansion, I purposely left most of my guns in my roller. But when Rynn stepped out of her buggy with the rest of the family, I placed a gun on her inner thigh. I had a small twenty-two caliber pistol attached to my right, upper ankle and on the inner part of my upper thigh. I didn't expect either of us using our concealed weapons, but I didn't know what to expect. Threats came in all shapes and sizes in the Badlands.

Rynn's thick, orange apricot hair looked good in braids, and Ireena dressed her head fashionably. "You look really good, Rynn," I said as I kissed her before we entered into the facility. Mama had the large plate of truffles. I carried Ivy on my shoulders, and Rory met us at the entrance to the massive backyard with the large swimming pool. She was only about five foot two, long black hair in a single ponytail. She had on an Irathient tribal gown, but she wasn't exactly an Irath. She grew up with two Irathient siblings, raised by an Irathient mother for a number of years, and had several half Irathient siblings. Her Irathient mother lived in Defiance and didn't want anything to do with Mister Shooty because of his penchant for killing. Nolan and a band of rowdy soldiers attacked Yosemite National Park where she lived, killed her parents, and if not for Mister Shooty, she would have died. He saved her, adopted her, and raised her like a warrior. All of the Shootys' were trained in military fighting techniques, and I trained with them too when I lived in Arkansas. Rory was very white as far as skin tone, but not like a Castithan. Nevertheless, she suffered skin rashes and burns from direct sunlight, and when she was a young girl, she caught sun-sickness on more than one occasion.

"I come to Defiance to see Rota all the time, Tommy, but you're never around anymore," Rory said. Her hair was long, and she wore it in the traditional, very well structured Irathient braids. Most of the women at the event had similar hairstyles out of respect for the Irathient tradition. Even though Mister Shooty wasn't an Irath, he raised several full Irathient kids, half Irathient kids, and one human girl in the Irathient tradition. Due to the war, the terraforming, and so on, we were all children of the Badlands. We were making up the culture on our own, and I had hoped by the time my children were grown, we would have had all the details of our new world sorted out.

"I'm in and out," I said, "Sophia acts crazy if I call her Rota," I said with a smile. "She'll correct me on the spot."

"Me too, but until she changes it in a court of law, I'm calling Mama, Rota," she said.

"You know I spend most of my time on the farm?" I said with a smile. "Give us a holler and we'll all go out for a bite to eat or some drinks." I felt sorry for the Shootys when it came to their Mama, Misses Rota because she abandoned them several years back when she was only about fifteen because of Mister Shooty's compunction to kill people. He was some kind of elite soldier in the beginning of the Pale Wars, and he had a lot of innocent blood on his hands. I recall Irocuz hating him for a long time, but completely forgave him for the atrocities that happened in Olmec, Mexico years prior.

"So, Rynn. How's the baby?" She asked with a smile.

"He's beating me up at night, but he's doing well," she said.

Naria walked around in her bathing suit and had a white towel over her body. She was probably about twenty-seven now, and she kept herself in fantastic shape. As soon as she walked up to me, she said, "Where's Irisa?"

I gave her a quick hug, and said, "She was injured on the job, Naria. I wanted to bring her, but she wasn't up to it."

"Well, we can get together at any time," she said, "There's no reason to be strangers. We're kids of the Badlands, and need to stick together."

"That's true," Rynn said.

"I was never surprised when you two married," Rory said. "Tommy, you were so smitten with Rynn."

Rynn laughed. "I was quite smitten with Tommy too."

Naria chimed in and said, "We were all smitten with Tommy, but he only had eyes for you, Rynn."

"That's true," Mama said, "That just shows you Irisa is something special."

The aroma of barbeque pow meat permeated throughout Mister Shooty's compound when we walked up to the area. Ireena and Ivy changed into their swimsuits, showered, and played on the shallow end of the pool. Nearly one hundred people meandered around the area chatting and talking about pastimes with Mister Shooty. The sky was thick with clouds, but the heat raged; it was blurring at times even without the sun. I took out my handkerchief, wiped the sweat from Rynn's forehead, and she sat down at one of the tables to rest her feet. When I wiped the sweat from Rynn's face, she pursed her lips, and then I kind of laughed.

"What?" I asked with a smile.

"You're making all the women jealous because their men aren't as caring and giving as you," she said. "You make this ole' Irathient girl happy."

I laughed. "It's effortless," I said, "I care about you so much that I do what I do without any effort whatsoever."

Mama walked over to us after she dropped off the pan of truffles to Bixby Baker, a Liberata who worked directly for Mister Shooty. He was the guy who set up my wine business and made it viable. He had a knack for such things. Bixby stood near the two fire pits on the far side of the grounds and barbequed the pow meat. Rotisserie pow was my idea of Antarctica.

"Damn, that pow smells good," Mama said with a smile. "It's been a minute since I've had rotisserie pow."

The bottles of Tommy's Specials were on every table, and there was something about having my brand of wine on display. It had my name on it, and it made me feel some kind of way. But at least five people at the party were wealthy businessmen, and it felt good to be one of them. Bixby waved for me, and I immediately walked over to him. He looked tattered and old-and worn. He was up in age, and I could tell.

"I heard what happened to Irisa," he said with a grimace. He opened the lid on one of the pows and checked it for a moment. "Are you okay?"

I looked at him for a minute, and then said, "I will find out who hurt my paramour, and execute them with extreme prejudice."

"You're such the Ark Hunter, Tommy," he said, "You be careful in those Badlands."

An array of food was on the tables in the front including Rynn's truffles. "Eat one of Rynn's truffles? It's like a taste of Antarctica."

He reached over, pulled back the foil, grabbed one, and then popped it in his mouth. He closed his eyes, and a look of serenity came over his face. "Oh, my! This is truly heavenly."

Mister Shooty walked over to me wearing an old-world, sports suit, and he still looked fit like the early years. His attire demonstrated one serious truth about the man: my version of an important event and his version of an important event weren't the same. "Tommy, you didn't have to dress so well for this event."

"It's honoring the man I admire the most, sir," I said. "When you send invitations to an event, I automatically think I must be at my best."

When I walked back over to Rynn, she looked at me for a second, and said, "What?" I placed my right hand on the back of her neck.

"We're overdressed," I said.

"That's obvious," she said, "But aren't we always overdressed at these events?"

I laughed. Mama laughed. Rynn kissed the backside of my right hand. I watched Stahma Tarr on the other side of the field with Datak, and they were also dressed well; but when it came to the Castithans, they always had on the best attire, especially when it came to Stahma, a woman from the highest ranking.

Mayor Rosewater and Jeb Nolan walked into the event, and from what I could tell, they were dressed quite well too. When it came to Mister Shooty, truly a man of wealth and means, we always dressed in our finest attire. It was between twelve and one when we gathered around the tables to eat. He had a team of waiters of all species serving us. The people hollered over Rynn's truffles. The funny part about the whole deal was I didn't get one of them, but I was happy that so many people had the opportunity to taste her baking skills.

Nolan sat across from me, the Mayor was next to him, and then Datak and Stahma. Rynn sat next to me and Ireena was on my other side. Usually, Irisa would be on my left. Mama sat next to Rynn. Bixby was on the opposite end of the table to my left while Mister Shooty was on the other end. I stuck my fork into the delicate meat when Datak said, "You smell that?"

"What's that?" I asked while I made an attempt to chew my food.

"It's a metallic smell," he said.

Quickly, Nolan looked under the table, and then said, "Tommy, back your family away from the table." I immediately helped Rynn up, and we backed away. Nolan guided everybody away from the table but told Mister Shooty to stay in place. I realized quickly that the bomb was on his end of the table, and if he moved, the whole table would blow up.

"We need a Cold Fusion Weapon," Nolan said. He was underneath the table looking at the explosive device. I realized immediately that I was going to have to reveal more about myself. I had a gun with the ability to freeze objects solid. It could shoot a beam of liquid nitrogen onto a threat, and freeze it in place. It was called the VBI Cold Gun, and if I pulled it from my roller, then the Mayor would know I delved into deadly weapons. But since it was Mister Shooty in danger, I took my family to their vehicle and sent them on their way. I returned with the VBI Cold Gun and handed it to Nolan.

"I'm not saying shit," he said as he looked at the weapon. I stood next to Mister Shooty and watched Nolan as he froze the bomb. "Okay, Tommy. Back away."

"Okay," I said as a ran across the field.

I watched the events closely from a safe distance. Nolan raced across the field, and then after a few seconds, Mister Shooty ran across the field, and I immediately realized that he was barely human. He must have been moving at thirty miles per hour because when the blast happened, he was nowhere near it. The entire dinner was ruined, but we didn't have a clue who would want to kill Mister Shooty.

Most of the Defiance people left quickly except for Nolan and me. We began looking at video footage of the area that Mister Shooty had, but we didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Mister Shooty looked at the tapes with us while we were in the security office of his compound. When we walked out the office, a Liberati flew through the air and fired a Votan blaster at him. The Liberatis were dangerous creatures; they were deadly on all accounts. I hadn't seen one in years. The species were derived from the Liberata, but genetically enhanced, crafty, and beautiful. I pulled out my Po-Tech pistol, fired on the Liberati, but the creature moved fast. When she turned around to fire her weapon again, I shot her in the left shoulder, and she dropped her weapon. Quickly, Nolan moved in on the woman and stepped on her good arm. I grabbed his cuffs and placed her under arrest.

"Be careful," Mister Shooty said, "The Liberati are dangerous creatures."

"She's a Liberata?" Nolan asked.

"She's genetically enhanced," I said with a grimace. "They live over one hundred years, and fully grown by the age of five."

"Really?" Nolan asked. "Why haven't I heard of them?"

"The project was classified," Mister Shooty said, "When the government nixed the project, they ordered them all killed. I helped them escape."

"But why are they trying to kill you?" Nolan asked.

Mister Shooty walked in front of the woman, and then she said, "Tell them how you slaughtered us. Your grandchildren!"

"That's not what happened, child," he said, "Are you of my blood?"

"Yes," she said, "I'm the daughter of Derrick Shooty Jr.," she said.

"Your father told me to never visit him," he said, "I've stayed away out of respect."

"Did you try to kill my father?" She asked.

"It wasn't like that," he said, "Some bad guys tricked me into attacking your grandmother. I didn't know my sons were in the mask, and we battled. I nearly killed your father, but April stopped me. She showed me the truth." Mister Shooty looked over at Nolan, and said, "Let her go."

"But, sir. She tried to kill you," he said.

"My name is Kali Shooty," she said, "I'm of the Shooty Dynasty."

Later…

I grabbed my VBI Cold Fusion weapon from Nolan, and then I said, "If I don't return, please take care of Irisa." He looked up at me for a moment. "I love my paramour."

"I know those monsters killed your baby, but do you even know who did it?" He asked.

"The Busy Baker Boys," I said with a grimace. "I'm just finishing what I started. They attacked Irisa for whatever reason, but I'm going to take them off the map."

"I heard of them," he said. "They were killers."

"They still are killers," I said with a grimace. Kali walked down the steps of the house, and she was kind of short.

"Did you say the Busy Baker Boys?" She asked.

"Yes. Do you know them?" I asked.

"Yes. They're miscreants out of Oklahoma," she said. "There's a lot of them."

"Well, I'm going to kill as many of them as I can," I said, "They killed my child."

"So, you're going on a suicide mission?" She asked.

"It is what it is," I said.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

I traveled to about thirty miles outside of Defiance to the old ruins. The dilapidated buildings looked unsafe from where I stood. They looked like jagged mountains, tattered and broken because of the unexpected terraforming. I had been on the road all night. Rynn sent me a message that she made it to Sukar's safely, and I felt good about that, and I was bitterly tired. The murky clouds concealed the sun, but not the sun's intensity. I sweated profusely and drank from my container of water. I kept a full jug of it in back of the roller for long trips.

There was plenty of activity in the old ruins. I saw a Castithan scurrying from one building to the next with a bundle of food. She looked like a teenager from what I could tell through the scope of my rifle. I placed the cardboard on the windows of my roller to make sure it didn't reflect light and give away my position. I was about ninety yards off the main road. A bundle of bushes blocked incoming traffic from seeing my position. But at the same time, I could see the main road if I position myself the right way.

It was only eight o'clock in the morning, and the thermometer on my roller read a whopping ninety degrees. I placed a straw hat on my head that I carried in the trunk of my car. I smelled the droppings of hellbugs in the area, and I knew I had to keep a watchful eye on them. The scratching of several large birds drew my attention away from the activity in the city. It was like feral cats clawing at the dirt, but when I looked around my area, I couldn't see anything.

I looked through the scope again for a better readout of the area. The Castithan girl walked calmly down the road when one of the Baker boys smacked her to the ground. She tried to get up, but he pushed her to the uneven pavement with the heel of his right boot. I knew him. I could tell by his face that he was one of the Baker boys, and I immediately assumed it was Travis. It had been years since I had seen him. Usually, I saw him at Ark Hunter outpost making a ruckus, especially the ones near Muskogee, Oklahoma. That was before I sliced off a piece of Aaron's face.

I trained my rifle on the back of his head. He yelled obscenities at the poor teenager, but I couldn't tell what he said. He made a series of violent motions toward her, and I thought about shooting him in back of the head. She squinted her eyes like she was in pain, and my heart went out to her. She looked up at him, panting, and placed her right hand on her forehead. She then checked it for blood. He charged at her as if to hit her again, but she quickly curled up into a small ball to protect herself. I thought for sure he was going to kick her, but it was a ruse. He walked away, and she lay on the street crying: flat on her back, hands on her face, and I could tell by the way her stomach would rise and fall that she suffered a great deal of anguish.

It was warm, and sweat poured down my face. I couldn't help but think back to Melak Deruts, a Castithan slave who served Jessie and Martha Peterson, two cruel slave owners near the Votanis Collective in Arkansas. I was about twelve-years-old at the time, and the Shootys were easily the wealthiest family in the area. Every now and again-and often Melak Deruts walked past my booth where I sold pow chili and pow sandwiches. Mama and Irocuz often worked the booth while I studied in the background. In those days, Melak was about sixteen, but I wasn't fixated on her like I was with what I had turned Rynn into in my mind. Every day I had thoughts of her, but I never saw her again after she left me in the Bazaar nearly six years earlier. But when Melak walked past my booth, I often spoke to her in Castithan.

"Melak Deruts, religwo," I said with a smile. I merely said, "Hi, Melak." She looked over at me with a sheepish grin and continued to walk past me. "Muga, swagu." She stopped for a moment and then turned to me. Castithan wasn't a hard language for me, but I didn't speak it all the time. When Castithan customers came to my booth, I often spoke the language at that point.

"Frizuzu ebi thrumi," she said with a grimace. She wore a white robe with a belt tied around her waist. Most people who lived in the area was quite skinny, and she wasn't an exception to the rule. She had large, silvery blue eyes, but I could tell she had a bruise right above her right eye. I remember her words vividly now. "Can't be late" was all she said, but I didn't know for what. She turned away from me and kept walking up to the base.

"Enyasho," Irocuz said laughing. He basically called her a bitch as she walked away, and I thought that was rude. Mama gave him a nasty glare, but he pretended like he didn't say anything inappropriate.

I recalled staying at the booth for most of the day. Mama made me a bowl of chili, and I sat at the tables enjoying it when Melak sat down in front of me. I smiled at her because she looked exceptional for a moment. I was so happy that she sat with me that I offered her a free bowl of pow chili. "Do you want some Chili?" I asked. "It's on the house."

She smiled. "You're such a nice boy, Tommy," she said. She held onto her right side, and then when she removed her hand for a second, I saw her pink blood oozing out her right side. It horrified me because I didn't know what to do.

"Mama!" I screamed. Melak fell over, and I caught her before she hit the ground. I held her ethereal looking head in my arms, and she grabbed a hold of my left hand.

"Irzu tells me he has a plan for you," she muttered. Mama raced over to her, but she died in my arms. "Mama, she was a nice girl. Who would do such a thing?"

"I don't know, son," she said.

When the law keeper investigated the crime, it was determined that Jessie Peterson stabbed her when she resisted one of his beatings. Due to the fact she was a mere slave, his punishment was only a few nights in jail, and that enraged Mister Shooty and Irocuz in the same way. When we were back home, he paced the living room with his serrated blade in his right hand. I could smell the homemade whiskey seeping through his pores. Mama had the oven in the kitchen turned all the way up because she was cooking hell-bug soup. I was scared. I watched Irocuz's as his lips sweated and the anger of the injustices consumed him. "They let that pink skin killer get away," he mumbled under his breath. "Not this time. Not ever."

Now, I know Mister Peterson was killed on that same night the courts freed him, but I don't know who did it. I know, but I don't know. If I made a bet with all my money that I made from wine sales on who did it, I would put all my money on my choice. But even though I don't know who killed him from an eyewitness point of view, I will say who I believe killed him, and that was my father. In fact, he always kept the serrated blade in his old trunk, in a towel, and with dried blood on it. He loved that knife, but since he had to do a horrible, but honorable deed with it, he never washed it. The knife sat quietly in his old trunk underneath the barn. During my ark hunting days, I often opened the trunk, removed my pistol, and then gazed at the dried blood on Irocuz's serrated blade knife. I've looked at it a thousand times. I often knew my father as a hard Irathient, an Irathient who didn't care about anything outside of his family. He didn't revenge the girl because he loved her, but now that I think about it, maybe he did love her. I often thought it had to do with one basic principle: fair and equal justice, but now that I think about it, he might have had an affair with her. And when the system failed to punish Mister Peterson for murdering her, then my father took it upon himself to do it. Maybe he did it out of love. I just don't know now. But I cleaned off my father's knife, strapped it to my left leg, and I hope one day I can use it for justice.

Now, I sat on the hood of my roller, and just watched the main street. I watched the Castithan girl lay on the ground in an emotional state. Her body trembled as I gazed at her through the scope of my rifle. I realized she might end up in the same position as Melak. I knew about pink skins killing sixth Castithan slaves throughout the area, and it weighed heavy on Stahma's and Detak's hearts. There were two in Defiance, one in Apostasy, and three near Miami, Oklahoma. I recalled the Miami murders happening when I was eighteen. It was a horrific murder committed by the Parker Boys, so when I slaughtered them, I felt justice was served.

The Castithan girl lay in the fetal position for nearly an hour before Riri, the only female family member of the Baker clan, grabbed her by the back of the head, placed a rope around her neck, and made the poor girl crawl in front of her. Every time she stopped to check her knees, Riri would kick her in the behind. It was an ugly performance that enraged me. I looked at the disrespectful action taking place, and then I paced back and forth in front of my roller for a moment. I was beyond incensed at that point. Suddenly, my hailer buzzed, and I ran over to the vehicle, answered it, and it was Rynn. I told her about the Castithan girl, and that my mission had changed. At first, I wanted to revenge the death of my unborn child, but I realized saving the Castithan girl from an abusive situation was paramount now.

"But they're abusing the girl badly," I said. She questioned my motives about my reasoning behind rescuing the girl, and I quickly became defensive.

"You're the man of the household," Rynn said, "I don't know how I feel about you taking in a Castithan sex slave."

"Sex slave?" I said. "That's not the reason I want to liberate her from the abusive situation."

Rynn laughed at me on the other end. "Then why are you going to do this?" She asked. "Humans love their Castithan sex slaves."

"Because my father wouldn't let a Castithan girl or any girl suffer," I said.

"It's obvious you'll do whatever anyway. I'm voicing my objection, Tommy," she said, "But you'll see having an abused, Castithan woman isn't going to be a walk in the park. She's coming with a pot full of hell-bug innards."

"Can I have your blessing?" I asked.

"Do whatever, Tommy," she said.

I told her that I loved her, but she hung up the phone almost immediately. We discussed a Liberata housekeeper and business manager over the last few months, but it never formed into anything. But for some reason, the idea of having a Castithan slave never popped into our minds. Most Castithan, female slaves also performed various sex acts, but that doesn't mean Liberata servants weren't used for sex too. It happened all the time.

Frustrated, I ate some pow jerky to pass the time. In fact, I dozed off in my vehicle for several hours, and when I awoke, night had fallen and the city buzzed with activity. I felt a little dehydrated because it was so warm. I smelled musty too. I reached into the back of my roller, grabbed some baby wipes, and washed the important parts of my body while drinking as much water as possible.

As I finished wiping my butt with the baby wipe, I saw the Castithan woman walking along the street again, but I didn't know what to make of her. From her gait, I thought she was of the lower class; therefore, I assumed I'd see some other Castithans of higher castes walking the streets at some point, but that never happened. On the other side of the city, I saw some humans moving about the area. The generators made a lot of noises; they echoed throughout the entire area. I could hear a constant humming from the machines' motors with a rapid puffing sound in the background. What I would call the main street had rows of lights flickering that came on all of a sudden

.

It was a Saturday evening, and I noticed human females of all hues moving about the area. It looked like it was a bustling city with structure and everything. I didn't know the old ruins had so much activity in place. I had an understanding that the old ruins were home to the waywardly, and that looked like the case in every way.

I eventually drove into the town around nine o'clock in the evening. The sign read "New Hope" as I entered into the happening city. I noticed the steel houses throughout the community, and that was important because of the Razor Rain. It smelled of human feces in most parts of the town. It appeared the residents tossed their feces into a burn pile on the south of the town. I assumed the plumbing wasn't viable since the bombing of twenty-thirty. In some ways, New Hope reminded me of Defiance on several levels, but I didn't see too many aliens. The women moved about the area offering themselves for half of what it cost in Defiance.

The Castithan girl hurried past me, and her stench caused me dismay. "Are you okay?" I asked. She paused for a moment, looked back at me, and smiled.

She shook her head in the negative and then walked away. I looked down at her dress, and it had a dried, red spot on the back of it. I assumed she had experienced her monthly, but didn't have the products needed to take care of herself. It was one of the major signs of abuse in the Castithan slave population, and if Datak had seen such a thing, he would have had a conniption.

There was a pub at the end of the block called the Messy Spot with a flock of women on the outside who repeatedly flashed their breast as men walked by. Immediately, I didn't notice one alien girl in the lineup. I looked for Irathient eyes and pasty, white skin, but found not one among them. I stepped into the bar, ordered a few drinks, and noticed they carried my brand of wine in their stock. There were rusty, pink-skinned men all over the place, and women too. It was a three-story building, and for a twenty minute trip with one of the girls was only thirty scripts. It was twice that in Defiance. I saw men walking up the stairs with a woman and then back down in about five-minute increments. I didn't see any Iraths in the bar for some reason. Most of the ladies were human, and then I saw the one Castithan woman. She had that black collar around her neck. I looked around the room, and eventually saw the sign over the counter that read, "Humans Only."

A large man walked into the bar-a noticeably large man-who walked behind the counter. It was Travis Baker, and he counted the money in the cash drawer a few times, closed it, and then spit some of his drink on the floor. The Castithan girl walked into the bar with a basket of fruit and set them on the counter. Travis looked in the basket, and then the girl stepped back. He sniffed one of the apples, and said, "Did you even try to pick the good ones? Smells like your rotten pussy!"

"Yes, Master," she said softly. She looked down at the ground as if to show shame. "Please don't beat me?" She began to cry.

"Travis, leave the girl alone," one of the men in the bar said.

"Don't tell me what to do with my slave," he said.

He then walked around to the other side of the counter, slapped the Castithan woman to the floor, and then screamed, "Haint!" I became incensed at the man's actions towards his Castithan slave until she screamed for his mercy, and then my rage boiled over.

"Master Travis Baker, I can't take any more beatings," she pleaded. She looked to be in her late teens, but I couldn't really tell from where I sat. She was a thin woman in dingy clothes, and she looked as if she came from the Secundo Inferos Class, but I was solely going off her gait, and I only saw her from a distance. But at the same time, she had to be of the lower classes to be enslaved so easily. She knelt on the ground in front of her master, and it sickened me. But what bothered me the most was I was looking at one of the Busy Baker Boys abuse another being, and I hadn't intervened in the situation. Immediately, I walked over to her and placed one hundred scripts on the counter.

"I'll like to take some of her time," I said with a smile. I had every intention of leaving with the girl, but more than that, I was going to kill the man who stood in front of me. I knew that much when I entered the bar.

He had a toothpick between his teeth and appeared to be a mouth breather. He was large and out of shape. I immediately noticed he had a gun strapped to his hip, and a knife in his left boot. I saw the location of the blade when he hit the girl, and it stuck out the top of his boot. He didn't have much hair on his head and a lot of razor stubble. He looked at me wide-eyed, and I wondered if he recognized me. I was only fourteen when I saw him last, but now I stood in front of him at the age of twenty-two and tall. He took a swig of whiskey, wiped his mouth, and said, "Boy, you add another zero to that, and I'll sell the little bitch to you."

I looked down at her as she sat on the ground, and said, "Draw up the proper paperwork, and I'll take her off your hands." She clung on to my right leg like a scared child under the protection of her father. I could smell the infection from between her legs, and I knew I was going to have to get that taken care of immediately. I felt her hands clasp onto my ankle holster. She patted it, looked up at me, and then nodded in agreement. It was more of a warning, and due to my ark hunting days, I knew exactly what she meant.

"You'll take this no good Casti bitch off me for one thousand scripts?" He asked. His gaze clued me into something afoot with the deal. I didn't trust him at all, and I need to be on point.

I placed my right hand on the back of her neck, and she looked up at me. "Yes," I said, "I can put her to work on my land." I stood at the counter for a moment, and Riri came from the backroom and already had a contract drawn up for me to sign. The girl slid up to the counter, and the big man couldn't see her from his position. I thought that was a tad strange. I knew Riri, but I wasn't sure if she remembered me. But when she placed the contract in front of me, I read it carefully. She placed her right hand on her pistol, unlatch the strap, and the girl pulled the gun from my boot and gave it to me. Immediately, I shot Riri in the head, and she flew back into the whiskey bottles. When Travis dove over the counter, I pulled out my father's serrated blade, cut his throat, and blood flew straight into the air. He stood in front of me bleeding wildly. One of the other bar patrons charged me, and I shot him between the eyes. The young Castithan girl stood with her back to the bar with a look of horror on her face. I looked at Riri's hands to make sure she didn't have Irisa's ring, and she didn't. When I saw one of the men in the corner of the bar go for his pistol, I shot him in the chest. The rest of the men charged past me, and the women dove to the floor. When one of the miscreants descended the stairs, I put a bullet in his gut.

I ran out the back of the bar with the Castithan, into the street, and several armed men entered into the front of the business. I could see them from around the corner. Eventually, I took off along the back of the buildings. The human excrement gave off a pungent odor that nearly brought me to my knees. I was able to make a clean escape, but when I looked up, about three angry men charged my way. I shoved the girl into my roller, and we took off down the dirt road.

"She almost got the drop on you," She said as she looked over at me. "The other men who offered to buy me weren't as lucky. "

I paused for a moment because of her indignant body odor. We had the windows rolled down with the air conditioner blasting. I had never smelled another creature with such a pungent odor in my life. We traveled for about fifteen miles before I had to pull over, and breath. She stood by my roller, and when I looked at her face, she was bruised badly. I checked the back of the roller for any kind of feminine medicines for the smell. Ireena and Rynn had some of their hygiene products in the roller, and I checked them thoroughly to make sure they didn't have some kind of antibiotic cream for the occasion. I almost closed the trunk's hatch until I saw a small bottle of feminine medicine nudged between the spare tire and the left side of the trunk. I walked over to her, and she kind of froze in place. But when I raised my hand to move her hair so I could see her bruises, she flinched like I was going to hit her. I found that disturbing. "I'm not going to hit you," I said with a smile. She didn't say anything at all. I gave her a canteen of water, some baby wipes, and the medicine, and told her to clean herself up.

I sat on the hood of the car, under the night sky, and waited for the young woman to finish cleaning up. I watched the tattered roads for vehicles coming out of New Hope, but I didn't see anything.

"Are you still there?" I screamed.

It took her a long second to answer, but she eventually said, "Yeah."

Suddenly, I saw a hell-bug scuttle in front of me. I hopped off my roller, ran to the trunk, and grabbed my detonator. I turned three hundred and sixty degrees, and then I said, "Get over here."

"I'm not done," she said.

"Get over here now," I said. "Run." She ran over to me, and then a hell-bug warrior leaped out of the bushes. "She smells you."

She stood behind me in the nude, and the smell was completely gone that emanated from between her legs. I had my detonator trained on the giant bug. I could hear the vicious animal rubbing its pinchers together. The insect charged me straight on, and I hit him with a series of bombs. They stuck to the creature, but when I pressed the button on the side of my gun, the bombs exploded and ripped the monster into pieces.

I looked back at the Castithan girl, and she stood quietly against the roller. She was a thin woman with bruises all over her arms. I looked her over for a moment, and then asked, "So, they were setting me up to be killed?"

"Yes, sir," she said. "You would have been the fifth kill this month."

I snickered, and said, "Yeah. I guess they underestimated me." I paused for a moment and looked at the young woman. "I'm looking for Aaron Baker," I said with a serious look on my face. "Have you seen him?"

"He's not in the area, Favi," she said calmly. "He's back in Oklahoma with the rest of their family."

"Who's here?" I asked. "Kevin? Joe?"

"None of them now," she said. "Travis and Riri owned the bar. So, Aaron and Joe will come back once they hear of their deaths and kill you."

"My name is Tommy Tar," I said with a serious look. "I'm of the Tar clan."

"My name is Shesha Flavion," she said. "Wait! Tommy Tar?" She asked. "The wine man? The Black Irath?"

"The same," I said.

"I'm now in service to you, Favi," she said, "And humbled because you've freed me from an abusive situation. "

Back on the farm…

I had taken Shesha into Doc Yewll, and she gave the young woman a full physical, shots. Yewll looked back at me with a scowl on her face. "It's going to take about half a day for her infection to clear up."

"Okay," I said.

"So, don't be having sex until I clear her," she said, "Otherwise, you'll find yourself in my office."

I was somewhat offended that Doc Yewll assumed I'd be having sex with her, but in most cases, a Castithan girl was used for that one purpose. At the same time, Irisa was in the next room asleep, and I didn't want to wake her, but I did want to see her. I watched Irisa as she slept, kissed her softly on the lips, and then left out of her room. I looked back at her, and she looked peaceful.

It was Sunday. When I awoke around six o'clock in the morning. I looked over at Shesha as she lay in the corner of the room, and she looked disheveled. I walked into the bathroom, washed my face, and then when I stepped into the hallway, she was right by the door. "Favi, if you need anything, then just say it? I will do my best to serve you."

"Just rest, Shesha," I said.

She laid back down in her corner, and then I hopped back in my bed. I didn't know why she chose to lay in the corner of my room when I offered her the soft couch. I realized she didn't have one blanket. I took some blankets from the hallway closet, and when I covered her with them, she twitched as if she were being beaten. "You're safe here, Shesha."

When I awoke about nine o'clock, she walked around my room and looked at everything. "This is a large house," she said. "I'm not used to sleeping without being in a cage."

I gasped. "You'll never be in a cage again."

She looked back at me and smiled. "You didn't try anything with me last night," she said, "Am I not to your liking?"

"I have a wife and the sleeping Irath in Doc Yewll's office is my paramour," I said with a smile. "You deserve your rest. As long as you serve me, I won't let anybody touch you."

She smiled uncomfortably. "Favi, I am in service to you. If you need me, I'm here."

I walked up to her, placed my right hand on her left shoulder, and said, "You take care of your health. That is my only concern."

She pressed her head against my chest, and then said, "I will take it one day at a time, Favi," she said sheepishly. "There are so many books in this house," she said with a smile. "I've never seen so many in one place."

"You can read them all," I said with a smile.

She looked down at the ground with a certain amount of sadness, and said, "I can't read."

"Gragkaozu frizuzu radrigaza?" I asked. In Castithan, I asked, "You can't read?"

She gasped. "You speak Casti?"

"Yes," I said. "Soon, my family will return. We'll educate you in all you'll need to know."

She fixed me some pow bacon and eggs. She wore an old, white robe of Rynn's, and when I told my wife about it, she said, "As long as I don't see her wearing my shit, Favi, there won't be any fireworks." She was acting crazy when she called me _Favi_ , but that was okay. Rynn had a funny side, but she rarely used it.

Life in the Badlands-painful and tragic-killed the ordinary relationship of one man and one woman. Two souls fighting the cruel earth as husband and wife or whatever makeup the relationships might be was a rarity. Humankind and Votan kind hanged on a thread, and to be honest, the world lost nearly four billion people in the aftermath of the terraforming. The atmosphere turned toxic to a lot of humans. The creatures like hellbugs took thousands of lives. The fact that two, Irathient parents raised me in this cruel world was a miracle. My father told me a long time ago that _when a girl looks at you with love in her eyes, hold on tight because there won't be another one._ Simply put, that girl who looked at me that way was Rynn. She comes first in my life, and I can't imagine it any other way.

I ate the eggs with Shesha standing behind me quietly watching. She looked dignified, but I didn't like her long hair running past her lower back. When I looked back at her, I smiled. Honestly, I didn't like her waiting for me, but it was what slaves did. She stood by me and made sure I had everything I needed to be comfortable. After I ate, she consumed a meal of oatmeal in the left corner of the kitchen. When I walked into the kitchen, she leaped to her feet like a soldier. It caused me to pause.

"Shesha, why are you eating in the corner like that?" I asked.

"It's how I've eaten for years," she said. "It's comfortable for me."

"You're welcome to eat at the table," I said. "In the future, you can eat while I eat."

She looked down at the floor for a moment, and said, "If you force me to, I will, but I'm not comfortable with that."

I talked to Irisa for a little while on what happened on Saturday on my hailer. I asked her if she had heard anything about me, and since she was still in the hospital, she hadn't heard anything about the incident in New Hope. It was about ten o'clock in the morning when I brought my arsenal of weapons into the house from my roller. Shesha sat in the living room in the far right corner, watched television, and laughed at some of the silliest things I had ever heard in my life. When I looked at her while she laughed, she immediately covered her face. We hardly ever turned on the television set, and I'm not sure why we had one in the house in the first place. We read most of the time.

Shesha walked into the kitchen around eleven o'clock in the morning, without me saying anything at all, and prepared a pow burger, fries, and some greens. In some ways, it felt almost robotic the way she moved about the house. She wasn't merely a slave, but she had slave training. It was like second nature to her, and I didn't know how it would play out with Rynn. Honestly, I was praying to Irzu that Rynn would immediately put a stop to some of her ways. I didn't like the cowering in the corner one bit. But when it came to her cooking, it was fantastic. The pow burger tasted like she made it with love. And when I sat at the table to eat it, she stood next to me, and if I needed anything, she immediately got it for me.

I noticed she didn't take time for lunch, and I found that disturbing. When I asked her why she didn't eat lunch, she replied, "I'm a slave girl. I'm allotted one meal per day."

I looked at her for a moment as if she were kidding, but she appeared to be serious. "Listen, you eat when we eat and what we eat," I said.

"As you wish, sir," she said calmly.

I walked into the front room, watched the road for awhile, and then fell asleep on the couch. I slept much harder than usual because I had been up for long hours, traveling, and worrying about things out of my control. I had my pistol on my right ankle. I fell asleep about two o'clock in the afternoon. But it was about six o'clock in the evening when I heard Shesha scream, "Aaron's here!" Immediately, I ran to the window, and two rollers with skulls on them raced up to the house. I pulled out my detonator, ran on the front porch, and lobbed a series of rounds at the front vehicle. They were like grenades and caused the front car to flip on its side, and then burn. The other vehicle stopped in its tracks, and Aaron leaped out with his handgun and fired at me. I made another attempt to shoot him with the detonator, but I was out of rounds.

I retreated back into the house, and Shesha rocked back and forth in the corner of the front room. I grabbed my VBI Machine Gun and looked out the window. I thought it was a tad odd for them to attack me in broad daylight, but they did. When I opened up the front door, I saw four, Busy Baker Boys: Aaron, Joe, Kevin, and Tater.

"One of you dogs killed my baby," I screamed, "And stole my paramour's ring."

"What the hell did you say, Tommy?" Joe asked.

"The law keeper you beat up was my paramour," I said. "She was pregnant."

"That's why you killed my sister and brother, you goddamn piece of shit?" He asked.

"Their deaths are on them," I said, "They tried to kill me when I legitimately tried to purchase Shesha. Now, they agreed on a price, and then tried to kill me in the process."

"So, looks like we'll just have to kill Shesha too," Aaron said.

"I won't carve your face this time, Aaron," I said, "I'm going to kill you. Oh, and you best have my paramour's ring too."

"I tell you what, you damn monkey. You give me Shesha, and we'll call it even."

"I'm not giving up the girl, Aaron," I said. "But I'll promise you this much. I'll kill you last."

I stuck the gun out the door and shot Joe in the head. He flew back on to the ground, and Aaron began screaming at the top of his lungs. "I'll kill you, Tommy Tar. I swear to God."

I laughed for a moment, and Shesha lay on the ground in abject fear. I almost felt sorry for her. "Aaron, have you forgotten who I am, old man? I'm going to do to you what I did to the Parker boys?"

"Wait! You killed the Parker boys?" Tater asked.

"I thought you knew, Tater," I said, "The first rule of the Badlands, don't fuck with the Tars." I paused for a moment, and said, "Aaron, you can take your brothers and go. But right now Joe, Billy, Riri, and Travis are all dead at the hands of a Tar. Killing is what we do."

"We're not afraid of you, Tommy," Kevin said.

"Oh. I'm not saying fear should guide you. Common sense should though," I said as I watched Kevin edge closer to the house. I pulled out my Po-Tech pistol and shot him in the leg. When I did that, Aaron fired wildly into the house and shot me in the shoulder. I flew backward, and the pain went through my entire body. I grabbed my small pistol from my left ankle, and when Tater rushed the front door, I shot him in the upper thigh. He tried to attack me, but he fell to the ground, bled out, and died. "Aaron, where's my paramour's ring?" I asked. "You've made me kill almost your entire family."

He stepped away from his car. His face deformed from my charge blade. "I got kids. All my brothers got kids. The universe will make you pay for what you've done on this day, Tommy"

"How about my baby, Aaron?" I asked. "You attacked my paramour."

"It wasn't personal, Tommy," he said, "All I did was beat the shit out of some Irathient slag. I didn't know she was your girl."

"You don't understand a lot of things, Aaron," I said, "The Spirit Rider who stabbed Billy all those years ago is my wife and Irocuz's daughter. You don't mess with a man's family."

"Let me get my brother?" He asked.

"Aaron, you put my paramour's ring on the front porch, and then get the fuck out of here," I said, "Don't make me kill you, boy."

"What about Shesha?" He asked. "She's my family's property. She's worth a good, thousand scripts."

"The ring is worth three thousand scripts, Aaron, you piece of shit. You retrieve your brother, keep the ring, and I get Shesha."

Aaron laughed. "She's worthless, Tommy," he said, "But I'll take the deal."

The surviving Baker Boys left the compound, and then I hopped in my roller with Shesha and drove into Defiance to stave off a war with Rynn and her robe. I walked into Doc Yewll's office, and she had me take off my shirt, took the bullet out of my arm, and used some Nanos to heal me. Once she finished working on me, I had her check out Shesha to see if her infection cleared up completely while I talked to Irisa.

"Did you get my ring back?" She asked with a grimace.

"No," I said. "I killed everybody in their family except for Kevin and Aaron. I traded your ring for Shesha. They were beating her, and I just couldn't tolerate that."

Irisa looked at her hands for a moment, and asked, "Do you really need a Castithan slave, Tommy? What the fuck?"

"She's my assistant, Irisa," I said. "Mama and Rynn will teach her how to read and write."

"So, you knew the people who attacked me?" She asked. "You couldn't tell me?"

"Yes, but I didn't know until I talked to Datak," I said. "They were miscreants who have wreaked havoc all over Oklahoma. I offered to buy Shesha from Travis, and they tried to set me up to be killed. The Baker Boys invited death into their homes." I paused for a moment. "Maybe I can get the doc to release you tonight," I said, "I'd like to take you back to the farm for some rest and relaxation."

She grabbed me by the hands for a moment, and she looked distraught. "I think we're at a crossroads, Tommy."

"What do you mean?" I asked with a befuddled look. Shesha walked over to me and placed her arm on my shoulder.

"I'm looking at my life, and trying to figure out some things," she said, "I love you. I really do, but I need some time to work on me."

"Favi, she needs her rest," Shesha said.

I looked at Irisa as she lay in her hospital bed. For some reason, her words didn't register with me immediately, but after I watched her eyes feel with tears, I realized I no longer had a paramour. "Why are you doing this?"

"Just give me some room, Tommy?" She asked. Slowly, I backed out of the room with Shesha. I didn't know what to say to the break-up. She wasn't some side chick or a throwaway girl to me, but a viable member of my tribe. I kept thinking I heard her wrong, and I became so disconcerted over it that I couldn't think.

At the end of the Bazaar, a nice Castithan store that sold some of the finest Castithan clothing existed. Some of the clothes had class designations assigned to them, and I thought that was madness. Immediately, my assistant grabbed the clothes from the bottom caste tier, and I said, "That's not nice enough."

She looked back at me for a moment. "Favi, I don't want to upset the order of things."

I looked over at some of the most expensive items in the store, pulled them off the rack, and said, "You'll wear this. And these. And these." I grabbed bundles of clothes off the rack, and said, "Fit her now, attendant."

"Yes, sir Councilman Tar," he said as he took her to the back room, and dressed her in the clothes. She must have been in the room with him for an hour, and then I gave him a thousand scripts, and he closed up shop for the night.

I carried her bundle of clothes as we walked through the Bazaar, and she walked slightly behind me on my left side. I heard some sniffling, and I didn't know what was happening. When I looked back at my assistant, she was crying. "What's wrong? It'll take some time to move past the abuse you endured."

"How do I repay you for all this, Favi?" She asked. "Just be the best you can be."

Shesha and I drove to Sukar's hut in the woods. When I pulled up to his hut, Rynn and the rest of family sat outside singing old, Irathient songs. Shesha walked behind me. "Holy Izru," Rynn screamed. "How much did you spend on her?"

"Not much," I said.

She looked at Shesha's wardrobe and sucked on her teeth. My Mama walked over, and then said, "This garment is two hundred scripts."

"So," I said.

"Well, it is nice," Rynn said. "You just spoil everybody." She looked up at me as she held onto her belly. "What's wrong?" She asked in a caring manner. When I told her that Irisa broke it off with me, she immediately became concerned too. She knew how Irisa felt about me better than I. She looked over at Shesha, and said, "I'm the wife in case you're wondering."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am," Shesha said, "But he showed me all your pictures."

Mama and Ireena introduced themselves to Sheha. Sukar and the other men in the tribe discussed the future of the Irathients in the area. I wasn't necessarily invited to the meeting, but I was concerned. I politely asked to speak with Mama and Rynn, and we stepped off to the side and away from the overall group of people to discuss my issues.

"I will talk to her," Rynn said. She had her arms folded across her stomach. I wondered if she was frustrated with me for disturbing their meeting. I didn't want to interfere with their meeting because I understood how important the Irathient causes across the continent were. "It is strange that she would just break off the relationship."

I stood in front of my wife and Mama for a second, and then Mama said, "She just needs time to process it all. She didn't really know you like Rynn does. She just thought you were some poor, hapless thug running from your sordid past. She didn't realize she was with a killer."

"Defiance assumed I was the run-of-the-mill street hustler. I let them believe it," I said, "I'm the Black Irath to some and the Black Ranger to others, Mama. It is what it is. I can't change that now."

"The dead Baker Boys are on the Tommy Tar name now," Rynn said, "This can hurt your political chances in the future."

I looked down at the ground for a moment and then said, "I killed them in self-defense. It's really that simple."

"Fine. But you need to live and die by that story," Rynn said, "There was some chit-chat over the radio about the killings in New Hope. There will be rumblings from it."

"Now, you and Shesha get out of here," Mama said. "We'll go by and see Irisa tomorrow before we head home." I hugged Mama and Rynn and then kissed Rynn's stomach, and we left.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

The next day about ten o'clock in the morning I watched the Defiance, Law-keeper's roller heading up the dirt road to the house. Shesha was doing the laundry, ironing, and cleaning up. I was standing next to the front window with my VBI machine gun, and she was moving about the house without paying any attention to me at all. She was just doing her job. I walked outside, and the putrid smell of the burning Baker Boys' bodies permeated throughout the area. The first thing Shesha and I did the previous day was to burn the bodies of the dead men. When Nolan exited his vehicle, I walked out on the front porch, but not with my gun.

"What brings you here, Nolan?" I asked with a concerned look on my face. Looking at me with his fatherly look, I just stared back at him.

He looked up at me with a side-eye, and then spit his wad of tobacco on the ground. "I warned you to leave this issue alone, Tommy. What the fuck!"

I walked off the front porch and then said, "Travis and Riri tried to set me up. I was about to sign a contract for a Castithan slave, and she went for her pistol. I got my gun first. I killed her and Travis. It was a clear case of self-defense."

"You went there to kill them," he said, "You said you were going to do just that."

Shesha walked out of the house with a smile on her face and then confirmed what I had said. She was a mild manner in her deliverance. Her hair hung past her shoulders, and she moved gracefully. "They planned on killing, Mister Tar. He defended himself admirably."

Nolan looked at her like he didn't believe what she was saying. "They're making a stink out this whole situation, Tommy. It's going to come back on you."

"I made a deal with Aaron. I let him keep the ring for Shesha," I said with a grimace. "Now. Those Baker Boys came on my property yesterday and forced me to defend myself. I killed two more of them."

"Several men have tried to purchase me over the last year. Travis and Riri stole their money, and killed them," Shesha said. "Surely, you can check into that."

"I will," Nolan said.

"You don't have to worry about Irisa and me, Nolan. She broke it off," I said, "She doesn't want to be with me anymore."

He laughed for a long minute. It was more of a chuckle at first before he burst into a good, old fashion laugh. He then laughed harder, and I was kind of offended because I didn't recall saying anything funny. "She's hurting, idiot. You need to go be with your paramour right now."

Later…

I stood by Irisa's bed for about three minutes while she slept. I could tell she had been crying all night, and there wasn't any reason I shouldn't have been by her side. Shesha sat on the floor in the far corner of the room, and it was her thing. I didn't know why she retreated into the corner like that, but if she felt comfortable, then I didn't really care. Doc Yewll fumbled around in her office and told me several times not to upset her patient. I'm not sure what made her say that because I hadn't done anything to upset her.

"You know I'm awake, right?" She asked. I pushed her apricot hair out of her face. Doc Yewll stuck her head into the room and then went about her business.

I placed the back of my right hand on her soft forehead, and then said, "It's time to get out of this bed."

She looked over at me with a straight face. She didn't smile or anything, and then asked, "Why?"

"Because this is no way to live," I said. "You've barely eaten anything and you're experiencing depression."

She sat up on the bed and looked over at Shesha for a moment. "So, you're a doctor now, Tommy?" She looked directly at me with a grimace on her face.

"There are much sicker people in Defiance than you. They're at home living life to its fullest," I said. I'm not sure how my actions and words affected Irisa, but she hopped out of the bed, and Doc Yewll stormed into the room.

"What's going on, Tommy?" Doc Yewll asked. "You trying to free my patient?"

"I'm tired of being here," Irisa said, "I'm ready to go home."

"How are you feeling?" Doc Yewll asked.

"A little sore, but not too bad," she said, "I want to sleep in my own bed."

"What was that, Councilman Tar? You're going to compensate good ole Doc Yewll well, and help her buy better equipment?" She asked.

I laughed. I handed her two thousand scripts, and she was ecstatic over it. "Send me your request for equipment, and I'll see what we can do. I'll talk with some of the other businessmen throughout Defiance, and we might be able to buy several pieces of new equipment."

She took the script, counted it, and then stuffed it in her safe. She looked back at me, and said, "I need a better x-ray machine. They're upwards of forty thousand scripts."

"Make a list of all the items you need, and I will present it at the next City Council Meeting," I said, "I think I can frame it as a safety issue. A healthy Defiance is a strong Defiance."

When I took Irisa back to her hovel, some of the food she had on the table had gone bad. I didn't think about heading over to her apartment when she was in the hospital. Shesha picked up the place while I talked to Irisa, and cleaned up the rotting food. She worked without me saying anything to her at all. Irisa looked over at her for a moment and then said.

"I hope she doesn't throw away anything I need."

"She won't," I said, "She's a hard worker." I pulled back the covers for her, and she hopped in the bed. I texted Rynn and told her Irisa was at home. "What do you need me to do? I can go to the market for some food items."

"I think I'm good for now," she said as she looked up at me with her big, round eyes. Shesha finished with the cleaning and sat in the far corner of the room. After about thirty minutes of talking to Irisa, I looked over at Shesha, and she had fallen asleep.

"So, are you my paramour or not?" I asked with a grimace.

"Of course," she said. "I was just upset about things. Frustrated," she said. "Those assholes caused me to lose my baby."

"Do you need some water?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said with a smile. When I stood to my feet, Shesha was already getting the water. I walked over to her, and she handed it to me.

"Here, sir," she said with a smile.

"Damn! She's good," Irisa said."It feels so good to be back in my own bed."

"I bet," I said. For about another two hours, I lay in bed with my paramour, and she fell into a deep sleep. She still had bruises all over her face, but she seemed to be healthy overall. I gave Shesha some script to buy dinner from Rory's booth, but she came back and said it wasn't even set up. It was Monday afternoon. Usually, Rory-the Irathient Rory-had her booth in position early in the morning. If she wasn't working, then somebody from her tribe worked it. At first, I didn't think anything about Rory's booth being empty. But after I ate the hell bug sandwich from one of the other booths, I thought I would pay the Bazaar a visit. I kissed Irisa on the forehead, and then Shesha and I headed to the Bazaar.

"Did you say she was of the Grado Tribe?" Shesha asked.

"Yes, I did," I said. "Have you heard of them?"

She walked up to me, and said, "The Gerado men are extremely violent in nature," she said, "Feral."

"Yes. I know a bit about them," I said with a grimace. "He's been abusing her too."

I stood in front of Rory's vacant booth and thought it was strange she wasn't working today. I tried to think back to the last time I talked to her, and I couldn't remember. It must have been Tuesday or Wednesday because I remembered she cut up my steak, I gave her sixty scripts, and Irisa complained about it. But with all the drama with Irisa and the Busy Baker Boys, I couldn't remember the last time I saw her. Shesha walked behind the booth, bent over, and found a wadded up piece of paper. She unraveled it, but then left it on the table because she couldn't read it.

"I don't recall a time when I haven't seen her working, Shesha," I said calmly. She picked up the paper off the counter and handed it to me.

"I can't read this, but it could be something," she said sheepishly.

I looked at the paper, and it was written in the Irathient language. I looked at it for a moment, and I became dismayed over it.

Note:

Ni uda nia nay morgana. Nia koryadae.

End of Note

The note simply said _I think I'm going to die. I'm cursed_. I assumed Rory wrote it, but I wasn't sure. In addition, it wasn't addressed to anybody in particular. I paused for a moment, and then looked over at Shesha.

"What does it say, sir?" She asked.

"I think I'm going to die," I said, "I'm cursed." I paused for a moment, and then said, "But it isn't addressed to anybody and I can't tell who wrote it."

"Favi, that's Irathient?" She asked with a befuddled look.

"Yes," I said. "It's just scribbled on a piece of paper."

She laughed sheepishly for a moment, and then said, "How can you stand to be around somebody like me with no education?"

I looked over at her for a moment and then said, "You'll learn how to read and think. I promise."

She looked worried for some reason and then said, "I'm not very smart. I'm just a haint."

"Okay. The first rule of the Tar house. We don't say things like that," I said. "I don't want you to think of yourself that way."

"Yes, Favi. I'm sorry," she said.

When Shesha and I walked past Irisa's hovel, I saw Rynn walking out of her apartment, and then I said, "Is Irisa still sleeping?"

"Yeah," she said. She walked down the stairs and gave me a long hug. "I didn't wake her up."

"Obviously, she was feeling down about the series of events and didn't mean what she said," I said.

"Miss Rynn, we think Rory's missing," Shesha said calmly.

"Wait? You mean Irathient Rory?" She asked.

"Yes, ma'am," she said.

I passed the paper to Rynn, and then said, "I think it's Rory's writing, but I can't remember her signature."

"Hold on," Rynn said. She pulled out her wallet and had a receipt from Rory in her pocket. "Look, honey?"

"It's the same," I said with a grimace. "I'm going to the People of Irzu."

"Do you want me to come?" Rynn asked.

"Baby, things might not go right," I said, "Protect my child. Shesha, go with Rynn."

"Favi, please let me stay with you?" She said.

"Shesha, it could be dangerous," I said.

"Do you think something happened to Rory?" Rynn asked with a serious look on her face.

"It's possible," I said.

"I will stay with the roller," Shesha said.

I looked at her for a moment, and asked, "Is your loyalty a ruse, Shesha?"

"I give you my loyalty because I've been with you two days, and you've treated me with respect. You haven't molested me, cursed me, or beaten me. This must be my Antarctica." She paused for a moment. "Favi, you are a good man, and I give you my loyalty."

"Well. She sees what I see," Rynn said. She held up her hailer, and said, "Call me as soon as you meet up with the People of Irzu."

Shesha and I raced about ten miles east of Defiance to the People of Irzu, and I worried for Rory. The possibility of her death played repeatedly in my mind. I told myself on several occasions to take action to save her from her abusive partner, but I didn't move on my intuition. I laughed for a moment because so many feelings flowed through my soul. I hated not knowing.

"Are you okay, Favi?" Shesha asked.

"I might be jumping to conclusions," I said. "I don't know if she's alive or dead. I might be worried about nothing."

"Then let's think positive," she said, "Without evidence, we must not come to conclusions."

People of Irzu…

I would say nearly eight hundred Iraths resided in Sanctuary City. The Mayor of the tent city was Kular Ibi. When Shesha and I walked into the city, the Irathients of Arms met up with me immediately. A lot of them decided not to take up actual Votan weapons, and I didn't quite understand that. They all had spears and bows and a lot of courage, but I thought without real weapons, they were in danger of being wiped off the map.

"Rory, udiaye es?" I asked calmly. I asked Rory's location, and the guard looked at me with a warped visage.

"Comick?" He asked. That translated to, "Why?"

"Zefae nia," I said, "Vitain, hena nayno." That translated to, "I'm worried. I haven't seen her."

The guard clicked his fingers, and another group of men brought Rory forward. She looked brittle from where I stood. She stopped about fifty feet from me, and said, "MIster Tar, I'm sick with the Irathient flu." She paused for a moment. "I'm okay, but just sick."

"Are you sure you're okay, Rory?" I asked with a grimace. "I went for a bite to eat today, and there wasn't anybody from your tribe serving."

She smiled. "I'm flattered that an honorable man such as yourself worries about a poor girl from the Badlands."

I smiled. "But you're okay?"

"Yes," she said. "No, Councilman Tar. I'm not okay." Suddenly, one of the guards smacked her to the ground, and another guard tried to thrust his spear into my chest. I pushed Shesha to the ground, and the spear nicked my right side. I rolled on the ground, pulled out my Po-tech pistol, and killed the guard. The bullet went through his head and splashed out the back of it. I ordered the other men on the ground, and by that time, the entire village came out of their tents. I didn't want to kill anybody, but the man pushed me to do it. Backing up, I picked Shesha off the ground while keeping my pistol on the guards.

"Rory, ga ee nay!" I said aloud. She ran over to me, and I didn't see any signs of the flu in her. She didn't have a reddish tint to her eyes. Her skin wasn't pasty white. "Shesha, are you okay?"

"I'm doing good, Favi," she said.

Kular Ibi walked forward from the crowd of people who gathered around the area, and said, "Once you leave, Rory, there's no returning." I could tell he meant it by the way he said it. Suddenly, I heard Rory cry out, and I knew it hurt her a lot. She had family within the community, and that meant she'd never see them again.

"I have to go, Mayor Ibi," she said with tears streaming down her face. "I can't take any more beatings."

Her boyfriend walked forward, and said, " He's not of our ilk. Just because he can speak the language doesn't make him a warrior."

"Just because you live with the People of Irzu doesn't make you a warrior," I said with a grimace. "I'm Tommy Tar from the House of Irocuz. I challenge you Irious Koba."

"What?" He asked.

"Do you accept the challenge?" Mayor Kular Ibi asked.

"I've walked the path, Irious," I said, "I've gone through all the trials of an Irathient Warrior. You either accept my challenge or be a coward to your people."

Shesha ran to the roller, grabbed my staff, and returned to me. She pulled the wooden staff out of the bag, put it together, and handed it to me. "How did you know about this?" I asked.

"I cleaned out your car earlier," she said. "It's loaded with all your weapons."

"I thought I took them all out," I said.

"Yes," she said, "I put them back just in case."

Moments later…

If it weren't for the Spirit Riders and their shenanigans, I wouldn't be any good at working with the staff. Well, Rynn taught me how to fight with it, but I practiced a lot with the Spirit Riders when I was younger. The town's people circled us, and we both had staffs. My staff had Rynn's name imprinted on the bottom of it and my name on the top. She made the staff for me in order to beat Sukar in a fight for her back when I was only sixteen. I was now doing the same thing, but I was fighting for Rory's liberation. If I defeated Irious, then Rory would be able to come and go as she pleased.

"I don't know why you're concerning yourself with Rory," Irious said. "You're a man of wealth, and she's Irathient trash."

"You hush your mouth, boy," I said, "You're going to make this ass beating very painful if you say anything else about her."

We stood in the middle of the circle in a combative, offensive stance, and from what I could tell, the adrenaline flowed through my veins rapidly. I looked at his fighting stance theoretically, and he placed most of his weight on his front leg. I was looking at his posture, the way he held the staff, and his footing for the best way to take him off his feet. When he tried to close the distance, he crossed his feet, right over left, and I tripped him up by sweeping the legs. He rolled backward, let go of his staff, and then landed on his feet. I wasn't sure why he let go of the staff, so I kicked it over to him, and we continued with our fight.

Suddenly, he charged at me with a flurry of well-placed jabs with the staff, and one of them came close to striking my right hand. He missed it, but I felt the sting nonetheless. I pretended like he hurt me, and began babying my right hand. I massaged it like he damaged it in order to change his perspective on the situation. I wanted my opponent to think he tripped me up, and if he thought he hurt me, then he'd probably let his guard down long enough for me to deliver a knock-out blow. As we circled the fighting area while twirling our staffs, I could see the stress in Shesha's eyes, and as far as I could tell, Rory looked worried too. She bit her nails and looked worried. Immediately, I lunged forward with a series of striking blows. The staffs met each other violently, and the knocking sound reverberated throughout the camp.

Logically, he had the momentum of the crowd on his side while I only had Shesha and Rory, and when it came to cheering, my Castithan assistant was reserved like a monk in a monastery. Irathient males prided themselves in their muscular bodies and sometimes used the philosophy of merely running over the weaker target when they thought muscle strength was all they needed. Irious lunged forward, kicked me in the chest, and knocked me to the ground. He charged me while I was down, and I used his momentum by chunking him into the crowd. I flipped back onto my feet and prepared for my opponent's bloodlust against me.

"He's good," the Mayor said. "He's truly an Irathient Warrior."

My opponent charged me again from a disadvantage point, and I didn't have a full grasp of which direction the strike was coming. I put my staff over my head and did a blind-side blocking maneuver. In all honesty, I should have been killed at that point because I blocked without seeing the strike. Immediately, I broke my staff into two pieces, and with my right hand, I went low, knocking my opponent off his feet. Once he fell to the ground, I locked up his arms, and he tapped out.

"You could have killed him," the Mayor said with a grimace. "Why didn't you take his life?"

"The first lesson I learned from Irzu was there's no lesson after death," I said, "It's my job to maintain life. The second lesson was we make the world better by being better."

The Mayor turned to his people for a moment. He placed his hands in front of his body. My opponent retreated back into the crowd, and I stood adjacent to the Mayor with Shesha and Rory. An aroma came from the wood-burning stoves, and it became something I enjoyed. It reminded me of the beauty of family. "Rory always has a home with the People of Irzu. She will come freely and leave freely. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir," the people said.

Tar Farm…

I had my field workers set up Rory's hovel on the east side of the property. She was about a mile from the main house and had unfettered access to the rapidly breeding pows. I charged her a monthly fee of residing on the land of a thousand scripts a month. Due to the pows' increasing population size, I needed her to kill them, cleaned them, cook them, and then sell the meat in the Bazaar. She did exactly what she was doing before, but now she worked for me. In all honesty, I hated the pows. I would consider them the most destructive species of mammal that ever existed on the planet. They consumed and consumed and bred and bred, and if I didn't keep them under control, they'd overtake my property in a matter of months. I felt like the pows made monsters of every farmer because we had to kill them constantly, and sometimes it meant wasting good meat. I tried to live by the philosophy of what I slaughtered I used, but the pows bred so rapidly that I found myself berating the help when I felt they hadn't killed enough.

Rynn and I sat atop of Lovely Hills, a small hill about half a mile from the house, and enjoyed a nice, pow steak that Shesha cooked for us. She was at the bottom of the hill practicing her reading skills, and we could hear her sounding out the words while reading an Old World History Book. About two hundred yards from us, I watched a gaggle of pows grazing in the grass. Rynn was discussing some of the propitious wine sales, and how we could maximize our profits, and I was simply watching the pows graze. Rynn was now six months pregnant, and she was huge. If not for Shesha, I don't think I would have been able to survive.

"We can probably get better grape prices if we stop buying from the People of Irzu," she said as she sat next to me. "They keep upping their prices, and it's cutting into our bottom line."

I continued to watch the pows graze in the pasture, and as I watched them, I would say half of them gave birth to more babies in just the time Rynn told me about the People of Irzu. "Why are the prices going up?"

"I don't know," she said, "I don't see any differences in production or sales over the last year."

"Growing the vast amount of grapes here isn't feasible," I said.

"That's right. It'll push the wine up to fifteen dollars a bottle," she said, "I think if we use the wine growers in Arkansas we can bring the price of wine down a dollar. Bixby believes if we can bring the price down to eleven dollars we can strengthen our brand."

Rynn's words made me feel good because her plan made good sense to me. "Then let's make a deal with some of Arkansas' wine growers, and work on a cheaper product." Right when I finished with that sentence, a large force of hellbugs clawed their way up from the ground and consumed the pows. It was a macabre scene of blood and guts, and I watched it like it was a work of art. There was nothing I loved more than watching the hell bugs do their job. If I could pay them for eating the pows, I would. There were two sounds I loved in life: Shesha sounding out words as she learned to read and hellbugs cleaning up the pow infestation. They brought me joy. Unfortunately, by the time we left for the main house, the pows were back to grazing, and their presence taunted me nonetheless.

Rynn was about four years older than me, so when she came back into my life, I was only sixteen. We married almost immediately upon her arrival back in my life. Often, we took our rifles to the edge of the property and had a shooting contest. Sometimes she won and sometimes I won. We were pretty good shots, and we loved the competition. Now, when we competed on shooting our weapons, if she lost, she'd blame the baby. "If not for your child kicking the shit out of me, you would lose."

"The fact that I'm barely winning in the first place just demonstrates your strength and resiliency, honey," I said as she complained about losing. Quickly, Shesha reloaded all the cartridges, and then we'd shoot the targets, analyze the shots, and work on our breathing techniques. Due to my assistants work, she'd make us lunch, and we'd sit right on the range, eat, and keep firing as soon as we finished with dinner. She'd fall into the background, work on her lessons, and then as soon as we needed her, she was right there. I walked over to Shesha, and said, "I want you to practice shooting."

Her eyes became bigger, and she trembled at the thought of holding a pistol. I didn't expect her to react in such a way around a gun, and in the New World, firing a pistol was the difference between life and death. I placed the weapon back in its holster, and she said, "Favi, please don't be disappointed in me?"

"I'm not," I said with a smile. "But I want you to shoot the weapon." She had on her white robe, and it was somewhat dirty at the bottom. I walked her over to the firing point and explained that we always kept the weapon down range when on the range. I pointed to the twenty-five-meter target and explained to her about simply pointing and shooting. When I placed the pistol in her hand, I could feel her trembling. I didn't know why she shook so, but she did. Gently, I placed the sound deadeners on her ears and had her point directly at the target. "Go ahead and squeeze the trigger," I said.

When she fired at the target, she hit it center mass, and then laid the gun on the ground. She ran out of the booth in utter fear. "Please, Favi Tar. I can't take it. I'm so scared."

"Then we'll take it a little at a time," I said, "You hit the target center mass though, Shesha."

"It took me a minute before I ever hit the target center mass," Rynn said. "We'll take your fear of guns one step at a time."

On an average day, I shot approximately thirty pows, wasted a few hundred rounds on targets, put healing lotions on Rynn's stomach, went over the books with Rynn, called Mister Bixby, argue with Ireena, and pretended Ivy was an airplane. Irisa left work around six in the evening, and I was in her hovel around six-thirty, and on most days, I had Shesha with me. She spent most of her time outside the hovel or walking the Bazaar-or hanging with Rory in the Bazaar while Irisa and I engaged in coitus. It was a Thursday in November of forty-seven when a huge festival took place. It was an old world tradition to prepare a great feast, and Defiance made plenty of free food.

In my household, we didn't celebrate the November festivities because we usually lived away from the main hub of civilization. We celebrated the Armistice in April and usually had a great feast. But since the collapse of the United States, we didn't see a need to celebrate the tradition of Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, Irisa ate more than her fair share of food on that day. When I came to her hovel, I could smell her gas, and it was rank. I'm not sure why she didn't call me on the hailer to warn me. It was like she wanted me to smell her at her worse. I stayed in her hovel for about an hour but left to take care of other things. First, I went to a City Council Meeting, and we agreed on funding Doc Yewll with some new medical equipment. After that, I watch Shesha look over a bead, bathing suit, and since we only had showers in the house, I thought she was crazy.

I walked around the Bazaar for a moment, waited for Shesha to leave the bathing store before I entered it. I stood near another booth, looked at their nicknacks, and then entered the store when I saw Shesha leave. I wanted to see what had her attention. They had a multitude of different Castithan tubs for sale, and some were only a couple of thousand dollars. There was a ten thousand dollar tub with stairs and a world pool feature that I thought Shesha would like. Immediately, I had a vision of a large, shipping container hovel outfitted to look like a home, but had the large tub placed on the inside. I called Rynn, told her about it, and she went through the books, and then berated me for the next ten minutes.

"You can't just go spending nearly seventy-five thousand dollars on your assistant, Tommy," she said. "She will feel unworthy of such a gift."

"It has to be in a hovel of its own," I said, "The steel hovel cost nearly fifty thousand dollars for the whole set up. Discuss the cost with Bixby. We might be able to get a few thousand dollars shaved off if we go through Mister Shooty."

"Baby, I'm afraid she won't be able to handle such an extravagant gift," she said, "I mean you spent nearly twenty-five thousand dollars on this bracelet, and I don't feel like I'm worth it."

"She slaves for us daily without us evening asking," I said, "She deserves this." I paused for a moment, and then said, "She'll love the tub. What Castithan wouldn't?"

Back at the farm…

It was around December the fifteen of twenty forty-seven when Bixby's crew finished surveying the land, and he put the nice hovel in place for only twenty thousand dollars. She saw the hovel go up with all the pipes and plumbing, and I simply told her it was for my business. She didn't think twice about it at all. Bixby called it the family discount price, and the tub only cost an additional twenty thousand dollars. The entire family spent the latter half of the month until the twenty-fourth of December in Defiance. I checked the finished product on December the twentieth while Rynn kept Shesha occupied, and if she knew I left without her, she'd have a panic attack. The outside of the building was made of a steel looking brick. The sign above the front door read _Shesha's Paradise_. It had a nice stairwell up to the door. As soon as I entered through the front door, it had rubber mats that lead to the bath. It had six, individual showers, and then in the back room was the large bath. It had beautiful, plastic curtains with unicorns on them. The ceiling portion of the room was actually a monitor, and a display of the planet Daribo, the Castithan homeworld.

When I returned back to Defiance, we sat in the living room of the rented house and shared gifts. I bought everybody a plethora of gifts, and Ivy was the happiest kid in the world. Rynn was about seven months pregnant, and she sat in a chair because of her back. Shesha reached under the tree, read over the names, and handed them to whoever owned them. When it came to the last gift, it was a small package.

"From Favi to Shesha," she said. "Oh. It's to me." She walked over to the corner of the room, pulled out the bath-bead suit, and stared at it for a moment. She had a befuddled look on her face, but she didn't say anything at first.

She placed the suit in her bag, and then I said, "It's a nice suit." She smiled at me sheepishly.

"It's very nice, Favi," she said with a fake smile.

"I spent a long time in the store for that one," I said. "I wanted to buy the perfect one."

She pulled it out of the bag, and said, "But we only have showers in the house."

Rynn laughed. "I think they work in the shower too."

Shesha gave another fake smile and placed the bath-bead suit back in the bag. Quickly, she sat back down with the family but remained quiet for the rest of the night. "We'll leave first thing in the morning for home," I said. "It's going to feel good to sleep in our own beds."

"Amen," Rynn said.

Suddenly, I heard Shesha crying, and then I said, "Are you okay, Shesha?" I looked at her for a moment, and then said, "Did I upset you?"

She placed her hands over her face, and said, "I'm ashamed, Favi. I'm ashamed because I'm not happy with my gift," she explained.

"Well, I'll be pleased if you wore it for me," I said.

She smiled. "If you ask me to wear it, I'll wear it, Favi." She paused for a moment. "It's just we don't have a bath at all."

"When was the last time you've had an actual bath?" I asked.

"When I was about ten," she said with a smile. "I snuck into Favi P'larious bath. He beat me for it, but it was worth it." Pulling the bath-bead suit out of her bag, she said, "I often dream of taking a bath wearing a suit like this." She took it out of its package, looked it over for a moment, and then said, "It's just most humans love showers. It's not the same."

"So, the Busy Baker Boys never let you take a bath?" I asked.

She giggled. "They rarely let me bathe at all. They rarely bathe." She laughed for a moment, and said, "They had heavy hands."

Back home…

We rolled up to the house in the big roller. Shesha was in the back quietly reading, and when we climbed out of the car, she didn't notice the large building with her name written on it. Rynn looked over at it, and said, "Damn! That's a work of art." When we walked into the house, Shesha sat in her usual corner, and Rynn looked at her for a second. Ireena, Rynn, and Mama all looked over at Shesha while she sat in the far corner of the room.

"Shesha, I want to see you in your suit," I said from the living room. She looked up at me with a grimace on her face.

"Okay, Favi," she said. She ran to the bathroom with her bath-bead suit and stayed for about ten minutes. When she returned, she stood in front of me with the breast and vaginal area covered. One of the rows of beads came from the center of the breast area to the underwear. The other row was in the back.

"You're a princess," I said with a smile.

She smiled sheepishly. Rynn threw some shower shoes on the ground, and said, "Put them on, Shesha."

It was cold outside, about twenty-five degrees, and I immediately grabbed my heavy coat and placed it on her. We took her outside to the new building, and when she looked up, she read the sign, "Shesha's Paradise." She looked back at me and smiled. Ireena opened the door, and Shesha was the first to enter the facility. I placed my arms around her, guided her to the bath area, and when she saw it, she nearly collapsed in my arms. I had to sit her down on the floor because it overwhelmed her.

"This is too much, Favi," she said with tears streaming down her face.

"It's all yours, Shesha," I said. "This bath only represents a fraction of how we feel about you." I turned a knob on the side of the pool to eighty-five degrees, and the water heated up. Rynn took off her coat, and she came out of her flip-flops and walked into the water. She had tears streaming down her face. She sat down in the tub, and then I turned on the bubbles, and she was in paradise. I pushed another button, and it unleashed sensation crystals in the water, and it was climatic. "Look at this, Shesha." I pushed a button, and the image of her homeworld appeared on the ceiling. "This is your homeworld."

"Favi Tar, this is too much," she said while she covered her mouth. "This is a tub for a queen."

"You just enjoy the tub," I said, "Rynn and I purchased all this for your enjoyment."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

I ran into the house when I heard Rynn scream my name. I knew what it meant because she had been having issues all night. Her water broke. Shesha, Ireena, and I helped her into the roller, and then we raced to Defiance. It was so cold that I could barely take it. It took us about thirty minutes to make it into the city, and as soon as we approached the stasis net, it came down for us. I rolled up to the Doctor's office, and she was already waiting for us. Rynn was in agony, but we got her on the delivery bed just in time, and Doc Yewll worked her magic. The delivery happened rather fast, and I was happy about that. The baby came out with apricot hair, dark skin, and smiling. When I placed the child in Rynn's arms, she said, "Welcome to the New World, I-ron Tar." She looked up at me and placed my right hand on the left side of her face. She looked so innocent to me.

"You did a wonderful job, honey," I said, "He's beautiful like his Mama." She looked down at the child and smiled at me. For a moment, she was the prettiest woman I had ever seen.

"And handsome like his father," she said.

It was about eleven o'clock in the morning when Shesha ran across the street to the food market. I was with Rynn as she held the baby close to her. I was so happy the baby came out strong like his Mama. He had so many people who loved him, and I wished his grandfather was here to see him. Irocuz would have been proud of Rynn. I know he would have because I was proud of her. I kind of broke out in a giggle because the little girl I met in the Bazaar at the age of six gave me my first child. Everything happened so fast that I didn't know how to process it. The child represented our tenaciousness to see things through. I remembered when I told her that I would find her one day, and I did just that. We settled our differences, and finally brought a wonderful child in the world, and I gave Irzu all the praise.

"Where's Shesha?" She asked. Her mouth looked dry, so I got her a cup of water.

"Getting food," I said. "I had her run over to the Bazaar and grab us a bite to eat." I handed her the cup of water, and she took a sip. She looked up at me for a moment.

"Oh! Make sure she picks up some extra Whacky Sauce," she said. "I'm in the mood for something with a lot of flavors."

"Some penis?" I asked.

"Not in front of our child, Tommy," she said.

"Not in front of me either," Doc Yewll said. "I may be a freak, but I got limits."

"Okay," I said as I laughed at Doc Yewll's jokes. I ran out of her office, walked toward Rory's booth, and somebody was manhandling Shesha. When I saw the man push her around, I thought I was going to have to kill him. I had my gun on my right ankle, and I wasn't in the mood to play games. Immediately, I pushed the Castithan male off her, and asked, "What's the meaning of this?" He was an older man with a craggy face. His clothes were worn, and his hands were large and rough. He stood approximately six-feet-two-inches. I approached the man, and said, "Tell me why you're attacking my assistant?" He looked like he barely had two coins to rub together.

"My name is Argus P'larious. Her master," he said. "The hoodlums stole her from me years ago."

Shesha was on her knees and clamped on to my right leg. I realized immediately that she wasn't about to let my leg go, and go with the poor sap. She trembled with fear because she didn't want to return to the P'larious household. "I don't want to leave the House of Tar, Favi."

"She's part of my family, P'larious" I said with a grimace. "I can't part with a family member. She lives in a nice house, eats good food, and has all the amenities she needs for a comfortable life. She's well read now."

"You've ruined her," he said. "She's only worth about a thousand scripts soaking wet. You don't teach slaves to read. Don't you know that?"

"She's not my slave. She's a respected member of my family. She eats at the table with the family. She's part of my family, and I don't want anybody to ever stake a claim on her again," I said, "You don't look like you have the means to take care of Shesha."

He looked flustered. "I've fallen upon hard times. I only paid five hundred scripts for her when she was but a child. A gang of miscreants stole her when I traveled to Oklahoma."

I placed my left hand on the back of Shesha's neck, and said, "I value Shesha's life. More so than I value your life, P'larious. I've taught her how to read, write, and a bunch of other things. I'm willing to go to war over her," I said, "Are you willing to die to have her back?"

"Of course not," he said, "But I'm out of five hundred dollars." He looked down at the ground for a moment and shook his head in shame. "I have nothing. I lost everything gambling in the Hollows, but I have a claim to this slave."

"I paid a great deal of money for her," I said.

"How much did you pay?" He asked with a grimace.

"Three thousand scripts," I said, "That's two times market value."

"Holy shit! Do you just give money away?" He asked. "No man in his right man would pay that much money for such a lowly slave."

"I was being generous," I said, "I killed three men and one woman for her. I'm willing to kill one more if the need arises."

I see," he said with a grimace. "You give me five hundred dollars, and we can settle all this right now with no bloodshed."

"You give me all the paperwork on her," I said, "I'll pay you fair market value on Shesha." Rory went into her safe, pulled out fifteen hundred dollars, and handed it to me. The old, Castithan man ran back to his hovel, and then returned with the paperwork. Shesha quickly ran Rynn's food to her, and then returned to me. We signed all the proper paperwork, and he took the money, praised my generosity, and then scurried off. When we returned to Rynn, I kindly told her what happened, and now that we had the paperwork, we no longer worried about not having legal possession of Shesha. The entire situation caused my assistant dismay, and she laid her head in my lap for nearly two hours before she could muster up enough strength to relax on the floor.

Irisa lent me two cots from the law-keeper stash, and we stayed with Rynn the entire time she was in the hospital. Irisa meander into the room during her rounds, and I loved seeing her.

"You don't have to stay with me the whole time," Rynn said.

My assistant was on her cot reading her book. I looked over at her for a moment. "Shesha, please tell Rynn what I'm thinking," I said as I sat up on my cot.

"We're not going anywhere without you," she said.

"I see," Rynn said, "Okay. Please keep the chit chat down to a minimum then."

"Yes, ma'am," she said.

I sat on my cot opposite of my wife, and she looked serene. I loved the peaceful look on her visage, but when it came to Rynn, I loved her in every way imaginable. She had an elegant visage that often caught my attention, and I still remembered how I felt about her when I was only six. She lay in the hospital bed, breastfed our child, and it was a picture of beauty. She had the same visage I remember from my childhood, and when it came to her scar, it was part of her character. I rarely noticed it even when I looked at her directly, which was all the time. There was nothing more peaceful than to listen to Rynn discussing things with me. She was so calm and beautiful that I loved just laying in bed next to her, and listening to her go over the status report on our wine sales.

After two days in the infirmary with the baby, Doc Yewll said, "Good riddance." I laughed, but I'm sure she was serious. I asked Shesha to drive Rynn to her doctor's appointment, but she didn't know how to drive, so I spent the weekend after the pregnancy to show her how to drive. I'd fuel up the roller, and let her drive me back and forth to Defiance to all my meetings, and the Castithan males complained. Eventually, the Castithan elite looked the other way because she was taking care of my wife.

It was approximately two weeks after Rynn gave birth to I-ron that she had her first Doctor's appointment. Shesha drove her, and then Datak sent me a nasty message on the hailer about it. He claimed my assistant was hurting the natural order of things. I simply told him I needed her to take care of Rynn when I was busy working with Mister Bixby. I didn't attend the appointment because I had a meeting with Mister Bixby in Arkansas over a new wine flavor. It had an appley tang to it that I thought would be big among the meth heads in the midwestern part of the country. When I arrived home, Shesha met me at the door, took off my jacket, hung it up, took off my shoes, and placed slippers on my feet. Rynn quickly went through a massive weight-loss phase, and I could tell it in her face. I found it odd because her scar wasn't as prominent either. I looked at her for a long time as she lay asleep on the living room sofa, and tried to determine if something had changed with her visage. The very top portion of the scar that looked like a half moon was barely visible, but I simply thought my mind over exaggerated it at some point.

The baby lay in his crib. I mainly kept the crib in the corner of the living room and had another one in our bedroom. The child wore out my wife because he always wanted to feed. She wanted to diet, and Doc Yewll told her she needed the calories for the baby. We had been married for six years, and I didn't recall Rynn ever being worried about her weight. I lay on the floor against the couch, and Rynn's right arm hung down on my bare chest. I was in and out of sleep when Shesha came into the room ready to take her daily bath.

"Favi, may I take some time for myself?" She asked with a smile. I sat on the floor and had to look up at her. She already had her towel, flip flops, and beaded suite on.

"Go ahead," I said. I wasn't going to say no. If I needed her, I would say, "I need your assistance." She would postpone her need to bathe to help me in whatever I had to do. "I hope you're enjoying your gift." I smiled.

"Favi, I owe you my life," she said. "You've saved me from a life of abuse. For the first time in my life, I feel like I matter."

"You do matter," I said, "You're family."

"Thank you, Favi Tar," she said as she nodded to me out of respect.

Rynn's next appointment with Meh Yewll came around April fifth, and I had recently turned twenty-two. With the excitement of I-ron, nobody made a fuss about my birthday, and I was okay with that. I didn't think much about it at the time when Shesha drove her to the doctor's office. Ireena and I played a game of cards, and she was upset because I beat her like three times in a row. Ivy played Tea Time in the dining room, and Mama worked over a crossword puzzle. Irisa had the day off, and she lay on the floor asleep. She was sleeping good too because she was snoring. When Rynn walked through the door, it was about two o'clock in the afternoon. Shesha came in with a new beaded, blue bathing suit to enjoy in her tub. I couldn't believe nobody at least acknowledged my birthday.

"Favi, thank you for buying me the new suit," she said.

"You're welcome," I said.

Rynn placed I-ron in his crib, and said, "He's almost thirteen pounds, honey."

"Sweet," I said.

"That's a pretty good weight," Irisa said while she lay on the floor.

Shesha sat a chocolate bar in front of me, and I gave half to Ivy. She loved chocolate like all kids, but if I didn't give her some, she would beg me until I did. Rynn sat at the end of the table, and I reached over, gave her a kiss, and she frowned at me.

"You taste like peanuts," she said. "Ewww."

"You never complained before," I said. When I tried to kiss her again, she turned her head.

"Tommy, nine," she snapped. That translated to "Tommy quit!"

I sat back down for a moment and realized she wasn't in a playful mood. In addition, I noticed the top part of her head didn't have a single blemish on it. For a moment, I paused at her smooth forehead and wondered when she planned on telling me what she was doing. She wasn't merely seeing the doctor about our child, but she was having work done on her face. For years I had known Rynn, and even when she refused to be with me as long as I was a law-keeper, she wasn't ever short with me. But now as her scar dissipated, she seemed to act differently towards me. I sat back in the chair and finished my chocolate bar.

Ireena said, "I-ron is such a quiet child. Ivy made such a raucous the first year that I thought I wasn't going to make it."

"I think he has Rynn's disposition," Mama said.

It was a weird moment for me. I was an emotional wreck for some reason, and nobody noticed at all. Shesha sat in the corner, and she was looking directly at me, and I wondered if she sensed something about me. Rynn grabbed me by that hand at the very moment that my heart was filled with the most doubts, and we walked out on the front porch, and then into the yard. It was cold. I felt a certain, negative way about myself. I didn't like the fact that I felt anger over Rynn having her scars removed.

"Tommy, nia oshea," she said. "Ni sudi hena kovac inyee ibra izago." I looked at her for a moment and shook my head in disbelief.

"You're right, Rynn. You should have told me you were having your scars removed."

"Viti oadi fooagi," she snapped. She looked over at me for a moment, and I didn't quite understand the anger. She said to me with a nasty tone that it was her face. I never said that it wasn't, and I didn't know why we were fighting.

"We talk about everything, Rynn," I said calmly. "Why haven't we talked about this?" I asked.

"Because I want this," she said, "For me, Tommy." She slapped her chest. "No girl wants to be scarred."

"When I see your face, I don't notice the scars," I said.

"That's bullshit," she snapped. "You sure notice when they're not there."

"So, you think you have to be sneaky about this?" I asked. "What's happening with us?"

"It's just that I know you see the scars as part of me as part of who I am," she said. "I know you're going to think I'm not your Rynn when they're gone."

"Are you my Rynn?" I asked. "I don't remember a time when I didn't love you. Are you still my Rynn?"

"Yes, Tommy! Yes! I love you and when the scars are gone I'll love you," she said. "Don't make me feel bad about this."

"It's not fair that you're not allowing me to be part of this," I said, "It's not fair that I'm not with you during the treatments."

"I'm sorry," she said, "For now on you'll come with me." She began to cry loudly. "I'm sorry, Tommy." I hugged her for a long time in the middle of the yard. She cried in my arms.

"I love you, Rynn. There hasn't been a time I haven't loved you. I just wish you believed that," I said, "If you don't understand that now, then I don't know how to make you see it. You should have never done this alone because it makes me think something is wrong with our relationship. I don't want to ever think there is something wrong with our relationship."

Rynn and I walked back into the house, and Ivy colored in her coloring book. She looked up at me, smiled, and then said, "Happy birthday, Uncle Tommy."

Shesha immediately stood to her feet, grabbed the calendar off the wall, and said, "Dammit!" She ran over to me crying, and hugged me around the waist, "Favi, please forgive me for not realizing today was your day?"

"Dammit! I'm sorry, Tommy," Rynn said.

"It's my fault," Mama said.

"Don't worry about it," I said. "We've been busy."

Irsia hopped off the floor, grabbed her suitcase, opened it, and pulled out a brand new coat for me. "Happy birthday, Tommy!"

Rynn ran to the bedroom, and then I ran after her. "What's wrong?"

"I've failed," she said, "It was my responsibility to remember your birthday."

"We've been busy," I said, "Don't worry about it."

Later…

Irisa, Rynn, Ireena, Shesha and I listened to some music and ate some pow jerky that Mama made. They discussed a million and one things about life in Defiance, and Irisa said something about she enjoyed living there. Rynn fed the baby, and Irisa's head was on my lap. Shesha was in the room too, and she was asleep at the foot of the bed. We were drinking some wine, but my wife wasn't participating because she was breastfeeding. Shesha only had a few glasses, and then she was out cold at the foot of the bed. The room was toasty. By ten o'clock at night, everybody was sound asleep except for Rynn and me, and we went into Ireena's room to talk. Ivy was with Mama, and the baby was with us.

When we walked into Ireena's room, she had toys on the floor, and some of them were metal cars, and I immediately picked them up. Her room smelled like roses all the time. She had some kind of sweet-smelling air freshener that let off a scent automatically. Rynn sat on the edge of the bed and laid I-ron on the pillow at the front of the bed. I didn't know exactly what she wanted to discuss, but I was hoping for a little sex. She had her shirt halfway buttoned up, and I could see her cleavage. Doc Yewll cleared her for coitus, and I was ready to test her out, but that wasn't what she wanted to discuss. I almost laughed when she looked up at me with her big, round yellow eyes, and she began buttoning up her shirt like she knew what I wanted. She clasped her hands together, and said, "I'm insecure, Tommy." She looked down at the ground for a moment, and tears raced down her face. "I looked at Naria at Mister Shooty's house all those months back, and I couldn't understand why you chose me."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "I chose you when I was six."

She placed her left hand on my right knee. I was sitting next to her on the edge of the bed. We didn't have any shoes on, and the carpet in Ireena's room was fluffy and thick. I was rolling my left foot on one of Ivy's tubular toys. It felt good as it rolled into the arch of my foot. When I looked down at the toy, I realized it was actually Ireena's toy, and I quickly knocked it under the bed. I grabbed some alcohol and a cotton ball off her dresser, and wiped off the bottom of my left foot.

"What are you doing?" Rynn asked grimacing. "You're making up a lot of noise."

"Sorry," I said. I tossed the cotton ball in the trash, and then she started to speak about the time we spent at Mister Shooty's.

"You could have had Naria, Rory, or any girl without all my crassness and scars," she said, "I'm damaged." I looked over at her, and she had a frown on her face. I didn't feel sorry for her pain because it was all new to me. In fact, I hadn't ever heard her talk about her scar until after the baby was born. I was kind of upset about the way she was acting because I always saw the Rynn I knew before the scar. It was like the scar was part of her. "I'm the apple that you throw back because it's badly bruised."

I walked over to her, placed my right hand on the back of her neck, and said, "These are your thoughts. You're thinking things that haven't crossed my mind. Maybe you're experiencing depression?"

"How could I not?" She asked. "I feel so ugly."

"You're the girl that took my breath away. Then and now," I said. "You're the girl that I killed three Ark Hunters to have by my side." She placed her head against my outer thigh. "I see all your beauty. Have you ever thought what I've done for you?"

"Sometimes," she said.

"I removed most of Aaron Baker's face for slandering you," I said, "Irocuz shot Billy De Baker in the chest for threatening you. You're jealous of women who can't compare to you." I stopped speaking for a moment and said, "I'm sorry, Rynn. I need to let you speak. I want to know all your feelings so we can move past this."

She smiled sheepishly for a moment. "I think I'll feel better once the scars are completely gone, Tommy."

"We're children of the Badlands, Rynn," I said, "We're all damaged." I walked over to the window for a moment and looked back at my wife. She continued to sit on the edge of the bed with a distressed look on her face. "How did you forget my birthday?"

"I don't know," she said softly. "I'm not happy about that. Are you going to beat me up over it when I'm already beating myself up?" She didn't mean physically beat her up because I'd never raise an angry hand towards her. I wasn't a Castithan male who ruled his household with an angry fist and threatened expulsion from the family at the slightest offense.

"It's funny that I'd gladly sacrifice myself for everybody in this house, but only the next to the youngest person thought about my day," I said. "Well, Shesha knew it was my birthday."

"No she didn't," Rynn snapped.

"She's so thoughtful that she pretended like she didn't know," I said, "She took the calendar down like she completely forgot, so everybody else wouldn't feel bad for forgetting."

Rynn laughed. "How do you know?" She asked.

I pulled out the candy wrapper and handed it to her. It had " _Happy Birthday, Favi"_ written across the package. "See?"

"Fine," she said, "Your little Castithan assistant is perfect."

"Can I be honest with you?" I asked.

She looked at me for a second with her sad eyes, and said, "Sure."

"I'm hurt you forgot my birthday. That's the truth, Rynn. Am I not worth the fuss?" I asked.

"Fuck you, Tommy," she said. "Okay. Fuck you!"

"So, we're taking it there?" I asked.

"You damn right," she said, "I told you I was sorry, but then you have to make me feel like shit over it."

"You're my wife, Rynn," I said, "I've chased you to hell and back, and I've practically thrown my heart at you. You have your scars removed behind my back. You forget my birthday." I sat on the floor. "I shouldn't have one doubt about us."

"What do you want from me, Tommy?" She asked with tears streaming down her face. "I back you in everything you do, and I don't rake you over the coals like this."

"I want to look at you and you look at me and just know you're taking care of my heart," I said. "Is that too much to ask?"

"No." She paused for a moment. "Doc Yewll promises in a few more treatments I won't have any more scars." She began to weep. "I deserve to have a pretty face, Tommy."

I looked at her for a moment, and she was actually looking at me with anger. Her apricot hair set on her head wildly. I tried to place my left hand up against her face, and she knocked it down quickly. "You already look good."

She scoffed at that, and said, "You think this is about you, Mister Tar? It's not about you. It's about me, Tommy. You always try to make shit about you, but it's not about you this time. I want to see a beautiful girl looking back at me when I look in the mirror. Is that okay with you? Is it?" I laid back on the bed, and I-ron lay next to me while Rynn paced back and forth in front of me. "You say you love me…"

"Enough of that, Rynn. I won't lay here, and let you question my love for you," I said, "I don't know why you keep acting crazy over this issue. I told you I'm okay with this. I just want to be included."

"So, you're okay with this?" She asked with a half smile.

"Yes," I said.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Fourteen

When Shesha found out she was part owner of the Pow Steak Ranch and the Pow Soup Business that Ireena worked, she immediately wanted to get her hands dirty with selling food in the market. She was like a child with a new toy and wanted to know how it worked. We sat at the table, went over the inventory, books, and then out of nowhere, she wanted to know why I spent so much money and time on her. She had a hard time fathoming that any man-human, Castithan, or Irathient had an honest bone in his system. She didn't say that directly to me, but she implied it nonetheless. I think she thought I was crazy, but she never told me she thought that.

"Favi Tar, I don't understand why you're so nice to me," she said sheepishly. She covered her mouth because I believe she wasn't comfortable. We stood up from the table, pushed in her chair, and then stood behind it.

"Why did you get up?" I asked calmly.

"I'm not comfortable, Favi," she said. She looked down at her hands on the back of the chair like I was berating her, but I hadn't said anything upsetting to her at all. "May I sit on the floor?"

"I'd rather you sit at the table with me," I said.

She pulled the chair back out, quickly sat down, and then I showed her how to take inventory of her business. I could tell she was uncomfortable sitting at the table, but I didn't know why. After a while, I asked her about her problem with sitting at the table.

"Why don't you like sitting at the table?" I asked calmly.

"Slaves sit on the floor," she said, "It's the rule."

"Whose rules?" I asked.

She looked at me for a moment with a calm look on her face. "Travis Baker."

"Yeah. Don't you remember that I killed him?" I asked.

She smirked. "Yes, Favi, but…"

"But nothing," I said, "You're disrespecting me by upholding Travis' rules. I have rules too. You sit at the table with the family."

She laid her head on the flat surface and began sobbing like she had broken a major rule. "Favi, forgive me? He beat me with a strap when he caught me sitting on the furniture. Please let me sit in the corner where I have peace. I feel good there, Favi."

"I'm not going to stop you from sitting and sleeping in the corner, but know that I don't like it," I said, "But you can do what makes you happy."

She stood behind the chair, and she wasn't smiling at all. I could tell she shed real tears. "It's only a matter of time before you take it all away from me. I'm not an owner of a business. Am I, Favi?"

"Rynn, Mama, Ireena, and I own the wine business," I said. "But I also wanted a presence in the Bazaar in Defiance. When I signed your contract, I filed it with the County Clerk. At the same time, I put your name on the business form for the businesses in the Bazaar."

"Okay," she said. "There's a lot of things I don't understand." She paused for a moment. "I have more now than I've ever had in my whole life, and I don't deserve any of it."

"Why not?" I asked.

"What have I given you?" She asked. "If you want my body, it's yours." She crossed her arms over her breasts and looked down at the ground. "It's all that I have to give."

"Your loyalty is all I need," I said.

"You already have it," she said.

I laughed for a moment. "You just live your life, Shesha," I said with a smile. "You just keep doing what you're doing."

Later...

Mama and Rynn worked with Shesha for nearly two months on making homemade loaves of bread of all types. It was some of the best tasting bread in the Bazaar. She learned how to make over fifteen different flavors of bread, pizza crusts and so on. She would get up early in the morning cook breakfast, make coffee, and then after she finished taking care of my needs, she worked on cooking the bread, and then Rory would pick it up, and take it to the Bazaar.

Shesha drove Irisa and I to the edge of the property, and we had a picnic out in the open. Irisa and I sat on a blanket in the middle of the field while Shesha lay on the hood of the roller. We had a large umbrella in the dirt that protected us from the rays of the sun.

"Shesha, come here?" I asked.

She walked over to the blanket, and said, "Yes, Favi."

"Sit!" I said. She quickly sat underneath the umbrella, and I rubbed some sunscreen on her face. She wore her sundress, and her pasty, pale skin was reddish around the shoulders. Gently, I rubbed the protective lotion into her skin. "Does that feel better?"

"Yes, sir," she said. She trotted back over to the roller.

"It's funny that she works so hard for you," Irisa said with a grimace. "Everybody knows about her fancy bathhouse, and they want you investigated."

"Investigated?" I asked. "For what?"

"There's a little rule in the town charter that allows for the city to inspect your house to make sure your slave has adequate facilities."

"Please! Nobody has it better than Shesha," I said. I looked over at her as she sat in the roller. When she saw me looking at her, she immediately hopped out the roller.

"Yes, Favi?" She said.

"Are you happy with me?" I asked.

"Yes, sir," she said.

"Do you have what you need?" I asked.

She laughed. "Favi, I have more than most," she said. "Not to brag."

It was September of twenty-forty-eight, and Rynn and I purchased some portable ovens for cooking bread. We had a full generator and everything. In addition, we purchased a used mobile kitchen from Mister Shooty for only twenty thousand scripts and gave it to Shesha. The truck had all the amenities: heat lamps, bins, splash screens, deep fryer, oven, and everything needed to prepare and protect food. When she arrived in Defiance with the truck, people flocked to it. The first week, she did an entire pizza menu that she called Castithan Pizza Pies. She made the pies based on Mama's recipes, and she kept calling them Castithan Pizza Pies, and I didn't think much of it at a time. She then started saying, "Another CPP on the burner." At first, I laughed at her idea, but she beat out all the other businesses selling them and had us all believing Castithan Pizzas were a real dish that came from the Old World.

I watched her making the pizzas, say her little sayings, and she repeated it so much that I thought Castithans Pizzas existed on the Castithan homeworld, but they didn't. She had a way of convincing people that the food was an authentic, out-of-this-world Castithan dish.

I stayed with Irisa the previous night. Shesha was actually on the bed, and Irisa and I were hanging out on the floor. We played cards, made love, and then fell asleep next to the bed. When I awoke, she was already patrolling the area. Shesha took a quick shower, and then I took a quick shower. Shesha had the food van parked down the street, and I checked on the truck a couple of times before I went to sleep because I didn't trust some of the Castithan elite. They opposed a Castithan businesswoman and might wreck her truck if they felt she overstepped her boundaries.

Rynn knocked on the door of Irisa's hovel and had her hair supplies. She handed me I-ron and I played with him on the bed. She had already braided his hair. She immediately braided Shesha's hair, and it looked incredible. She reached into her bag and pulled out a spring dress. "It's supposed to be warm today. Do you want to put on your spring dress?"

"Yes, Favi," she said. She quickly slipped into her dress, and I continued to play with I-ron. "How does it look?"

"Fine," Rynn said, "You need to eat more, Shesha. I can see your ribs."

Rynn and Shesha walked to the food court and set up their areas. I remained in Irisa's hovel and listened to some music. I then called Ireena on my hailer, and asked, "Where are you?"

"I'm at my booth with Ivy," she said.

"Okay," I said.

"I'm looking at Rynn right now, and Shesha's in the van," she said, "She's trying to convince Datak that the pizzas are authentic Castithan food."

"I'll be by in a little bit, Lil' Sister," I said.

"Okay," she said.

Later…

I walked into the van. Shesha ate a small, cheesy, Castithan Pizza, and as soon as I entered the van, she quit eating. She sat down her food until I said, "Please finish eating, Shesha. Your health depends on your nutrition."

"Yes, Favi Tar," she said. She sat down in the corner of the truck with her back to me and finished eating her food. I knew that I should have stayed in the hovel until she finished eating. She had been with us for over seven months and still wouldn't eat with the family.

"What if I told you you were doing something that's breaking my heart?" I asked.

Quickly, she turned toward me with food in her mouth. She swallowed it quickly, and then asked, "Favi Tar, please tell me what I've done wrong?"

"You're not eating with the family," I said. "I want you to eat with us."

She looked down at the ground for a moment. "I will obey your wishes," she said.

Underneath the counter, I placed a loaded handgun. She had fired it on several occasions and was actually a pretty good shot, but she didn't care for it. Even though she could hit the target during training, she had told me on several occasions that she didn't think she could shoot another person. "Shesha? Why?" I took the magazine out of the gun, and it was completely empty.

She fell to her knees and placed her head on my lap. "Please don't be upset, Favi Tar. I just don't like guns."

I wanted her to carry a pistol, but she just wasn't designed that way from what I could tell. She didn't have the heart to pull the trigger, and that bothered me. "I'm trying to protect you," I said. "Most of the people in Defiance are good, but then again."

"Maybe I can carry some pepper spray or something?" She said.

"I will see if Nolan has something you can carry," I said. "I think he might have small canisters of the stuff."

"Thank you, Favi Tar," she said with a smile. "You know Datak came up here talking about how he's never heard of a Castithan Pizza," she said with a smirk. Her hair was in skinny braids that started at the front of her head and went past her shoulders. Rynn braided her hair, and she was in the Pow Chilli Booth.

"What did you say to him?" I asked.

"Do you remember the foods you ate on Casti?" She asked of Datak. "Surely you ate Pizza of another name."

I laughed, and said, "Did he like it?"

"I don't know. He was too busy stuffing his pasty face," she said with a smile. He then said, "You're trying to make me fat."

A flock of Castithan kids bombarded the window, and Shesha immediately hopped to her feet, washed her hands with the anti-bacterial soap, and started taking orders. I thought Mama and Rynn did wonders with my assistant. She truly had a knack for money. Every few hours, Rynn came by the booths we owned and collected the money. She then deposited the money into our bank account at Defiance Fidelity Bank and Trust. I stood at the exit and watched Shesha for a moment as she worked, and she looked thin.

"Please eat lunch today, Shesha," I said.

"Yes, Favi Tar," she said.

Rynn served up several bowls of Chilli before lunch, and she had I-ron on her back. I walked up to her, kissed her on the lips, and then sat down in the rear of the booth. She immediately handed me our son, and I began to feed him with the bottle of milk she had in his bag.

"Your sister is talking about moving to Defiance," she said. She wasn't facing me because she was standing next to the pot of chili. She stirred the chili, and then looked back at me for a second. "How do you feel about that?"

"Why does she want to move out of our home?" I asked with a grimace. The thought of her leaving the safety of the family domicile made me nervous. It took so many years for me to locate her after she was kidnapped that I didn't trust the world with my sister.

"She's just looking at her options," Rynn said.

"Maybe we should build another room onto the house for Shesha, Ivy, and I-ron?"

"Oh. I-ron is only five months," she said, "He doesn't need his own room yet." She paused for a moment, and then said, "Shoot! I'm not even sure if Shesha would actually stay in her own room. She sleeps in the corner of our room, and I don't have the heart to say she can't." She laughed. "She's obviously by the book. She allots herself thirty minutes for her bath."

"She can spend as much time as she needs," I said looking down at the ground. "She chooses to be available to me whenever I need her. It's nice, but I worry about her. What kind of life is that?"

"She told me she couldn't imagine Antarctica being better than what she has now," she said.

"Oh, now," I said.

"Serious," she said. "It caught me by surprise too."


End file.
